ROLE OF THE FATHER

Question 1

ATTACHMENT TO FATHER

Answer 1

SCHAFFER & EMERSON (1964) found majority of babies did become attached to their mothers first and within a few weeks or months formed secondary attachments to other family members, including the father
- only 3% of cases had the father as the primary attachment.
- in 75% of infants = attachment formed with father by 18 months
- infants protested when father walked away - sign of attachment

Question 2

ROLE OF THE FATHER

Answer 2

GROSSMAN (2002):
- carried out LONGITUDINAL study looking at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachment into their teens
- quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers = related to children’s attachment in adolescence –> suggest father attachment = less important
HOWEVER –> quality of fathers’ play = related to quality of adolescent attachment –> suggests fathers have a different role in attachment –> more to do with play and stimulation, less to do with nurturing

Question 3

FATHERS AS PRIMARY ATTACHMENT FIGURES

Answer 3

• there is more to primary attachment than just being the FIRST attachment figure –> has to have special emotional significance
• relationship with PAF forms the basis of all later emotional relationships.
• some evidence to suggest fathers take on the role of the main caregiver –> adopt behaviours that in the past have been associated with mothers
  FIELD (1978):
• filmed 4 month old babies in F2F interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
• PCF –> more time smiling, imitating and holding infants than SCF
• important in building attachment with infants so fathers can be the nurturing attachment figure
• key to attachment relationship = level of responsiveness NOT the gender

Question 4

AO3: CONFUSION OVER RESEARCH QUESTION

Answer 4

• research into the role of the father = confusing as different researchers are interested in different research questions
• some interested in understanding the role fathers have as SECONDARY attachment figures WHEREAS others are concerned with the father as a PRIMARY attachment figure
• secondary = act different from mothers and have a distinct role
• primary = take on a ‘maternal’ role
• psychologists can’t easily answer a simple question of what is the role of the father?
• if research is inconsistent, the validity is questioned and findings cannot be generalised due to the irregularity of them

Question 5

AO3: CONFLICTING EVIDENCE

Answer 5

• findings vary according to the methodology used
• longitudinal studies such as GROSSMAN suggest that fathers as secondary attachment figures have an important and distinctive role in children’s development, involving PLAY & STIMULATION
  HOWEVER, if fathers have a distinctive role, we would expect that children growing up in single-mother and lesbian-partner families would turn out in some way different from those in two-parent heterosexual families
• studies consistently show that these children do not develop differently from children in two-parent heterosexual families
• therefore the question as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered.
  COUNTER –> these lines of research may not be in conflict - it could be that fathers typically take on distinctive roles in 2 parent heterosexual families, but that parents in single-mother and lesbian-parent families simply adapt to accommodate the role played by fathers
• this means that the question of a distinctive role of the father is clear after all –> families can adapt to not having a father.

Question 6

AO3: REAL-WORLD APPLICATION

Answer 6

• role of father can be used to offer advice to parents
• parents agonise over decisions like who should take on the primary caregiver role
• for some, this can mean worrying about whether to have children at all
• mothers may feel pressured to stay at home because of STEREOTYPICAL views of mothers’ and fathers’ role
• equally, fathers may be pressured to focus on work rather than parenting
• in some families, this may not be economically the best solution
• research into role of the fathers can be used to offer reassuring advice to parents
• e.g. heterosexual parents can be informed that fathers are more than capable of becoming PAF
• also single-mother and lesbian-parent families can be informed that not having a father around does not affect a child’s development
• parental anxiety can be reduced.