role of the father

Question 1

AO1 -
Schafer and Emerson (1964) - babies form attachments to dad. Only 3% cases father was first attachment

Answer 1

AO1 -
babies form secondary attachment with dad. in 75 % of cases the baby had formed an attachment with father by 18 months.

Question 2

AO1 -
Grossman et al (2002) looked over a number of years at parents behaviours. babies later attachment with father had less of an impact on adult attachments compared to mum. father plays less of an important role

Answer 2

AO1 -
Grossman concluded that fathers play a different role in attachment. they contribute to adolescent attachment through play and stimulation

Question 3

AO1 -
when fathers are primary caregiver they act more like a mum. Field (1978) videos fathers interacting with their babies and observed mire interactional synchrony compared to with mothers

Answer 3

AO1 -
interactional synchrony is important in attachment between baby and caregiver. Field showed that fathers who display interactional synchrony can be the emotional attachment figure

Question 4

AO3 -
P: limitation, confusion over research question
E: some research dads as primary attachment figure and some secondary
E: can’t compare outcomes between studies. some think fathers behave differently to mothers, some think they behave similarly
L: psychologists can’t full answer the question of what is the role of the father

Answer 4

AO3 -
P: limitation, has conflicting evidence
E: Grossman et al (2002) says fathers have distinct role
E: McCallum and Golombok (2004) said that they don’t have distinct role
L: conflicting research

Question 5

AO3-
P: strength, findings inform parental advice
E: traditional family- mum stays at home, dad goes to work- may not be the case for all people
E: research reassures parents. parental anxiety is reduced
L: has real world application