Role of the Father Flashcards
Does the role of the father have to be biological?
No, it only applies to the closest male caregiver.
Why has the role of male caregivers been often overlooked in the past and what has changed?
It has been overlooked by psychologists as they’ve focused on the role of the mother.
Significant childcare has changed over past 50 years.
10% of fathers are now PAFs
What two things did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) find from showing that babies do attach to fathers?
-found that in 27% of children, the father was a joint attachment figure with mother and in 3% of cases, the father was the sole PAF.
-found that 75% of children had developed an attachment with the father by the age of 18months by measuring the family reporting that the child protested when the father walked away.
What did Field (1978) find out regarding fathers being the PAFs of babies?
found that when fathers are the PAFs, they responded to babies with as much emotion/affection as mothers do who are the PAF.
However, when fathers were the Secondary Attachment Figure they didn’t respond with as much affection/emotion.
What does Field’s (1978) study results suggest regarding fathers being the PAFs of babies?
suggests that fathers can fulfil the same PAF role as mothers but are less likely to when they are secondary to a mother in the household.
What did Grossman et al. (2002) conduct a longitudinal study on and find out from this?
They conducted the study where babies’ attachments were studied until the children were in their teens.
They found that only the relationship with the mother predicted later relationships, suggesting fatherly attachments are not as important.
What did Grossman et al. (2002) find out also that makes fatherly roles seem more important than mothers regarding play?
They found that the quality of the father’s play with their child correlates to the quality of attachments the child had during adolescence.
Similarly to Grossman et al.’s finding regarding fatherly roles and play, what did White + Woollett (1992) say in support?
They found that fathers are important because they are better at helping a child develop greater communications + cognitive abilities through more challenging play.
What is an issue with fathers having a special role?
Some children grow up without the presence of a father.
What did McCallum + Golombok (2004) show regarding single parents and people together of the same gender?
They showed that children from single-parent, lesbian and homosexual-parent couples develop in the same way as children with both a mother and father present, and that the role of the father having a specific importance has been overestimated.
