The role of the father Flashcards
father
in attachment - father is anyone who takes the main role of male caregiver not necessarily the biological father
Attachment to fathers :DO babies actually attach to their fathers?
evidence suggests that it is much less likely for babies’ to first attach to their fathers compared to their mother
S+E found that the majority of babies first became attached to their mother at around 7 months
in only 3% of cases, the father was the first sole object of attachment
in 27% of the cases father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother.
it appears that most father so become attachment figures
75% of babies studies by S+E attached with their father after 18 months - determined by the fact that the baby protested when their father walked away (showing attachment)
do fathers have the same developmental attachment in a child’s development ?
Grossmann carried out a longitudinal study where babies’ attachments were studies until they were in their teens.
the researcher looked at both parents’ and behaviours and its relationship to the quality of their baby’s later attachments to other people
quality of baby’s attachment with their mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescents
suggesting that attachment to the feather is less important than the attachment to mothers
BUT (Grossman’s study)
Grossmann found that the quality of father’s play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments
suggesting that fathers have a different role from mothers - one that is more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with emotional development
fathers as primary attachment figures
a baby’s attachment with their primary attachment figure forms the basis of all later close emotional relationships. there is some evidence to suggests that when fathers take the role of primary caregivers, they are able to adopts the emotional role more typically associated with mothers
e.g. in a study, Field filmed a 4 month old baby in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers .
primary caregiver father spent more time smiling , imitating and holding babies than the secondary caregiver father did
smiling, imitating and holding babies is all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony which forms part of the attachment process
so fathers have to potential to be more emotion-focused primary attachment figure- they can provide the responsiveness required for close emotional attachment but perhaps only express tis when given the role of primary caregiver
evaluation - confusion over research questions:
Limitations: research into role of fathers lack clarity over the question being asked
some researchers see the role of the fathers as secondary attachment figures but others are more concerned with fathers as a primary attachment figure.
The former have tended to see fathers as behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role. Others found that fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role.
this makes it difficult to offer a simple answer as to the ‘role of the father’ it really depends what specific role is being discussed
Conflicting evidence
A limitation into the role of fathers is that the findings vary according to the methodology used.
Longitudinal studies such as that of Grossmann have suggested that fathers as secondary attachment figures have an important and distinct role in their children’s development involving play and stimulation.
However, if fathers have a distinctive and important role we would expect that children growing up in single mother and lesbian parent families would turn out in some way different from those is two parent heterosexual families.
In studies they consistently show that these children do not develop differently form children in two parent heterosexual families.
this means that the questions as to whether fathers have a distinctive role remains unanswered.
