The role of the father

Question 1

In attachment research who is the father?

Answer 1

The father is anyone who takes on the role of the male caregiver

Question 2

Who did Schaffer and Emerson find babies usually attach to first and when?

Answer 2

With their mothers around 7 months

Question 3

What was attachment to fathers like according to Schaffer & Emerson?

Answer 3

• in only 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment
• in 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother
• 75% of infants formed attachments with fathers by the age of 18 months

Question 4

What was Grossmann et al’s research procedure?

Answer 4

• wanted to see if attachment to father has specific value in child development
• conducted a longitudinal study where babies attachment was studied until they were teens
• looked at parents behaviour and it’s relationship to the quality of baby’s later attachments

Question 5

What did Grossmann find about attachment with mother & father in adolescence?

Answer 5

• Quality of baby’s attachment with mother was related to child’s attachment in adolescence
• Quality of fathers play was related to quality of adolescents attachments

Question 6

What does Grossmann findings suggest?

Answer 6

• Fathers have a different role more to do with play and stimulation rather than emotional development

Question 7

What did Field et al observe and find?

Answer 7

• Face to face interactions between infants and primary caregiver mothers, fathers and secondary caregivers father
• Primary caregiver fathers spent more time like mother smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers

Question 8

What does Fields findings suggests?

Answer 8

• Shows that father can have be more nurturing and can adopt an emotional role
• gender is not key but level of responsiveness

Question 9

What is a limitation of research on the role of the father?

Answer 9

• lack of clarity over the question being asked
• The question ‘what is the role of the father’ is complicated
• some researchers interpret this as looking at the role of fathers as SAF others PAF
• makes it difficult to offer a simple answer to the question as it depends on the role being discussed

Question 10

What is another limitation of research into the role of the father?

Answer 10

• conflicting evidence
• research suggests fathers have a distinct role
• however if this were the case, we would expect children growing up in single mothers and lesbian parent families to turn out some way different from those in heterosexual families but they don’t
• question of whether fathers have a distinct role is unanswered

Question 11

What is a counter of conflicting evidence limitation?

Answer 11

• Research may not be in conflict with eachother, could be that parents in single mother and lesbian parent families adapt to accommodate role played by fathers
• question of a distinctive role of father is clear as when present, fathers adopt a distinctive role
• but families can also adapt to not having a father

Question 12

What is a strength of research into the role of the father?

Answer 12

• It can offer advice to parents
  e.g. mothers may feel pressured to stay home because of stereotypical views of roles
• thus research can inform heterosexual parents that fathers are capable of becoming PAF and single mother/lesbian families can be informed that not having a father around does not affect child’s development
• parental anxiety about the role of the fathers can be reduced