Multiple attachments and the role of the father Flashcards
Outline the findings of Schaffer and Emersons research in regards to the role of the father.
They found that the majority of babies first became attached to their mother at around 7 months of age.
In only 3% of cases the father was the first sole of attachment.
In 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother.
However, they found that fathers went on to be important attachment figures as 75% if babies formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months.
Outline the procedure of Grossman’s study into the role of the father.
-Babies attachments were studied until they were in their teens.
-The researchers looked at both the parents behaviour and the quality of their relationship to their baby and they also assessed the baby’s later attachments to other people.
Outline the findings of Grossman’s study into the role of the father.
-They found that the quality of a mothers attachment was related to their attachments in adolescence and not the quality of their fathers relationships.
-This suggests fathers are less important than mothers.
However, he found that the quality of a fathers play with babies was related to the quality it adolescent attachments which suggests they have a different role to mothers
Outline research evidence to show that fathers can adapt to the role of primary caregiver.
Field (1978) filmed four-month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers.
They found that primary caregiver fathers spent more time showing reciprocity and interactional synchrony with their babies than secondary caregiver fathers which shows that fathers can take on the emotional role of a primary caregiver figure but perhaps only do this when they are required to be the primary caregiver.
Give a strength of research into multiple attachments and the role of the father. (can be used to offer advice).
For example, parents agonise over the question of who should take on the primary caregiver role. E.g should the mother feel pressured to stay at home or should fathers feel pressured to focus on work. Research into the role of the father has shown that fathers are quite capable of becoming primary attachment figures. This means that parental anxiety over the role of the father can be reduced.
Give a limitation of research into multiple attachments and the role of the father. (conflicting evidence)
Studies such as Grossman have found that fathers as secondary caregivers have an important and distinctive role in childrens development, including play and stimulation. However, if fathers have a distinctive role in child development then we would expect children growing up in single mother and lesbian parent families to turn out differently. It is clear that children in these families do not turn out differently and therefore it means the question of whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered.
Give a limitation of research into multiple attachments and the role of the father.
One limitation of the research into the role of the father is that there may be bias within the research. For example, preconceptions about how fathers do or should behave can create stereotypical accounts and images obsevernting roles and behaviour e.g those used in advertising. These stereotypes (e.g fathers are not primary caregivers or fathers are stricter etc) may cause unintentional obsever bias whereby observers ‘see’ what they expect rather than the reality.
