The Role of the Father Flashcards
What is the likelihood that babies become either the primary or secondary attachment figures? - Researched by Schaffer and Emerson
3% of the time the father was the first attachment
27% of the time the father was the joint first object of attachment
75% formed an attachment with the father after 18 months.
What did Grossman find about the role of the father?
Grossman carried out a longitudinal study where babies’ attachments were studied deep into their teens. The researchers looked at both parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of later attachments. Only the quality of the mother’s attachment influenced later attachments. He found that the quality of the fathers ‘play’ with the babies related to the quality of adolescent attachment - suggesting their role is more to do with play and stimulation.
What did Field find about fathers as PAF?
When the father takes on the primary caregiver role, they are able to adopt the emotional role typically associated with mothers. Primary caregiver fathers were found to be more likely to smile, imitate and hold babies than the secondary fathers. It seems that fathers have the potential to be the more emotion-focused attachment figure but can only express this as a primary caregiver.
What is the limitation - Confusion over Research Questions?
A limitation is the lack of clarity in the question being asked. Some researchers want to understand the role of the father as a secondary attachment figure, but some are more concerned with fathers as a PAF. The former saw fathers as having a separate, distinctive role and the latter saw them as emotionally nurturing. This makes it difficult to offer a simple answer, and the research is convoluted.
What is the limitation - Conflicting Evidence
A further limitation is that findings vary according to the methodology used. Grossman found that fathers have an important role in play and stimulation, however if fathers have a distinctive and important role then we would expect children growing up in single mother and lesbian-parent families to be different, but they are consistently similar. This means the question remains unanswered.
What is the counterpoint to - Conflicting Evidence
These lines of research may not in fact be in conflict. It could be that fathers take on a distinctive role in heterosexual families, but in lesbian families they adapt to accommodate the role played by the father. This means that the role is clear, they adopt a distinctive role which can be adapted to by a lesbian parent.
What is the strength - Real-World Application
It can be used to offer advice to parents. Parents agonise over who should be the PAF, and mothers and fathers may feel pressure to conform to societal standards, but research can offer reassuring advice, for example that fathers can be PAF, and lesbian parents can compensate for it. This means parental anxiety about the role of fathers can be reduced.
