Multiple attachments and the role of the father Flashcards
The role of the father: Bowlby
-Bowlby suggests that fathers can fill a role closely resembling that filled by a mother but points out that in most cultures this is uncommon.
-According to Bowlby, a father is more likely to engage in physically active and novel play than the mother and tends to become his child’s preferred play companion.
The role of the father: Schaffer and Emerson
-Found that fathers were far less likely to be the primary attachment figure in an infants’ life but were the first joint attachment in around a third of infants in the mid 60s. -> possibly because fathers do not respond as sensitively to their children due to biological factors, e.g men have lower lvels of oestrogen than women which is a hormone that underpins caring behaviour meaning tht they struggle to be as sesntive carers as mothers.
The role of the father: Brown et Al
Investigated father involvement, paternal sensitivity, and father−child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years of age. Results demonstrated that involvement and sensitivity influenced father−child attachment security at age 3. Involvement was a greater predictor of secure attachment when fathers were rated as less sensitive.
-> shows the importance of of paternal love for infants psychological wellbeing
The role of the father: Field
Conducted research which compared the behaviours of primary caretaker mothers with primary and secondary caretaker fathers. Face-to-face interactions were analysed from video footage with infants at 4 months of age. Overall, it was observed that fathers engaged more in game playing and held their infants less. However, primary caretaker fathers engaged in significantly more smiling, imitative grimaces, and imitative vocalizations than did secondary caretaker fathers and these were comparable with mothers’ behaviour.
-> the gender of a caregiver is not crucial in predicting attachment types/ quality, rather it is the extent of caregiver involvement.
