role of the father

Question 1

role of father - 3 ao1 points

Answer 1

attachment to father - schaffer and emerson - most babies attach to their father, 75% by 18 months - but rarely as first attachment (only 3%)

distinctive role for fathers - grossman - fathers may have a distinctive role involving play and stimulation

fathers as primary attachment figures - field - those fathers who were primary caregivers - more responsive than secondary caregiver fathers

Question 2

father - generalisability

Answer 2

hard to generalise to families that do not have opposite sex parents. This is due to the lack of having both a paternal and maternal figure for the infant to attach to, which could mean that the results do not apply for these cases, meaning that further research must be done so that it can apply to families who don’t have opposite sex parents.

Much of the research into the role of the father in attachment is based on the assumption that babies have 2 opposite sex parents which is of course not always the case. McCallum and Golobok among many other studies consistently show that children in single parent and same sex parent families do not develop differently

Question 3

father - reliability for study

Answer 3

geiger’s findings add further support to grossman’s conclusions that the role of fathers is different to the role of mothers in that the father’s role is more about play and stimulation – as geiger found that fathers were an exciting playmatee whereas mothers were more conventional and tended to read stories – other research highlighted that fathers are more physically active and better at providing challenging situations for their childre

Question 4

father - application

Answer 4

can be used to give advice to parents.
- pressures some face of becoming a new parents, such as mothers feeling pressured to stay home
-may be not economically just for the mother and father to focus on stereotypical roles.
-reassuring advice to parents. - that fathers are capable of being a primary attachment figure along with single parents who may not know how to look after the infant well.
- This is a strength as it allows the parental anxiety about the role of the father to be reduced.

Question 5

father - validity

Answer 5

A limitation of the research is that preconceptions about how the fathers do or should behave can be created by stereotypical accounts and images of parenting roles and behaviour, for example those used in advertising. These stereotypes may cause unintentional observer bias whereby observers ‘see’ what they expect to see rather than recording objective reality which reduces the internal validity.

Question 6

father - ethics

Answer 6

Research into the role of the father can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents. Reducing the pressures on mothers to stay at home and reducing the pressures on fathers to focus on work. Families can be equipped with the knowledge to help them make the best decision for their family. Potentially a positive implications for working mothers and the economy