role of the father and multiple attachments Flashcards
what did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) say about the role of the father?
they found that in only 3% of cases was the father the first sole attachment figure. in 27% of cases he was the joint first attachment figure, alongside the mother. by 18 months, 75% of babies had formed an attachment to their father.
what was Grossmann et al. (2002) study into the role of the father?
Grossman et al carried out a longitudinal study to investigate whether fathers have a specific role in the lives of their children.
the study looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to he quality of children’s attachment in their teens.
the quality of the child’s attachment to its mother, not father, was related to the child’s adolescent attachments.
however, the quality of thr fathers play (in terms of sensitivity and challenge) was related to the quality of
a child’s attachment. this suggests that fathers have a different role to play than mothers- more about play and stimulation rather than nurturing
what was Field (1978) study into the role of the father and primary and secondary caregivers?
Field wanted to see whether the role of the father changed depending on whether they were the primary or secondary caregiver to the child.
she filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interaction with:
- primary caregiver mother (PCGM)
- primary caregiver father (PCGF)
- secondary caregiver father (SCGF)
PCGF tend to spend more time smiling,imitating and holding the infant comapred to the SCGF. these behaviors are thought to be associated with the development of attachments. this all suggests that the key to an effective attachment relationship is the sensitivity of the PCG and NOT their gender.
AO3: how is ‘real life application’ a strength to the research in the role of the father?
by understanding the significance of the role of father, we can help to support fathers to feel important and included in parenting. for example, this could be done by reassuring fathers that have an important role by explaining how attachments work. you could explain how mothers have a nurturing role into attachment but that fathers have the role of playing and stimulating the infant in order to form attachments. this means that fathers will be more confident and less anxious in there abilities to parent, this can also make them feel less useless.
AO3: how is ‘contradictory evidence’ a limitation to the research into the role of the father?
if, as research suggests, fathers have a distinct and important role in their child’s development, we would expect children growing up in single-mother and lesbian parent households may expect their development to lack compared to a child with male and female models as they wont have a male role model.
However, McCallum and Golombok (2004) have shown that children growing up in such family structures do not develop differently.
on the other hand, this may be due to someone else taking over the male role model such as a grandad or uncle. or in a lesbian couple one could take on the female responsibility and one takes on the male responsibility.
AO3: how is ‘bias in the research’ a limitation to the research into the role of the father?
it might be that researcher perceptions of behaviours observed in fathers is biased. it might well be influenced by the stereotypical accounts and images we have about how the father should be. these stereotypes are present in society, for example, in advertising, it may influence the expectations of the observer. for example fathers are the strict one; fathers are more playful; fathers are the one with the most important job
AO3: how is ‘the nature of the research’ a limitation into the research into the role of the father?
because a lot of the research is observation, where the fathers (and infants/ children in some cases) know they are being observed. this means that they may change their behaviour so they present themselves in a better light. this means that the observations may lack validity. therefore we may be drawing incorrect conclusions about the role of the father.
