The Role Of The Father Flashcards
What were Schaffer and Emerson (1964) results?
Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that the majority of babies did become attached to their mothers first and within the first few months formed secondary attachments with their fathers. in 75% of infants studled an attachment was formed with their fathers within the first 18 months. This was demonstrated by the infants displaying separation protest when their fathers walked away.
What is a limitation of Schaffer And Emerson (1964)?
Low Temporal Validity
One issue with Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) research is that it is low in temporal validity.
For example, the study was conducted over 50 years ago.
This is an issue because this we may not be able to generalise the findings, that infants attach to fathers after their attachments have formed with mothers, to modern society. There have been vast changes in society over the past 50 years such as traditional gender roles being less important in a modern family. It is not as socially unacceptable for fathers to have a more hands-on nurturing role with their children in modern society. Therefore attachments may now form more readily with fathers as opposed to mothers.
As a consequence this reduces the credibility of Schaffer and Emerson’s (1964) research into the role of the father in attachment.
What did Grossman (2002) find?
Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into their teens. Quality of infant attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to children’s attachment in adolescences, suggesting that fathers attachments are less important. However, the quality of the fathers’ play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachments.
This suggests that fathers have a different role in attachment - one that is more to do with play and stimulation rather than nurturing.
What is a limitation of Grossman’s (2002) research?
Longitudinal Research
One issue with Grossman (2002) study is that it may lack population validity.
For example, they used a longitudinal study to look at the behaviours of both parents on attachment in adolescence.
This is an issue because there is a high drop-out rate amongst longitudinal studies. Studies that take place over a number of years often mean that personal circumstances mean participants cannot continue with the study. For example, parents who have divorced, moved away or even died would not be included in the final results of this research, This therefore means we are left with an unrepresentative sample of only participants who want, or are able to continue with the research.
As a consequence, this reduces the overall crediblity of the results as we cannot generalise the findings to the wide population.
What did Field (1978) find?
Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. She found that primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infant than secondary caregiver fathers. This behaviour seems to be important in building an attachment with an infant. This suggests that the key to attachment relationships is level of responsiveness not the gender of the parent
What is a limitation of Field (1978)?
Researcher Bias
One issue with Field’s (1978) research into the role of the father in attachment is that it may be subject to researcher bias.
For example, it involved researchers interpreting behaviours from videotaped footage of infants interacting with their mothers and fathers.
This is an issue because researchers may have interpreted the behaviour of secondary caregiver fathers as significantly different from primary caregiver fathers so that it was in line with their hypothesis and supported their underlying assumptions.
As a result, this reduces the credibility of the research into the role of the father in attachment.
What has attachment focused on the most?
It has focused on mother and baby attachment, and the role of the father in development has often been neglected.
Attachment to fathers.
Evidence suggests that fathers are much less likely to become babies first attachment figure compared to mothers. Schaffer and Emerson 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.
Distinctive role for fathers.
Does attachment hold specific value in a child’s development.
Grossman et Al carried out a longitudinal study where babies attachments were studied into their teens. The quality of a baby’s attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence. This suggests that attachment to fathers is less important than attachment to mothers.
However he also found that the quality of fathers’ play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments. This suggests 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.
There is evidence to suggests when fathers take on the role of primary caregiver they are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers.
Fathers as primary attachment figures.
Field (1978) filmed 4-month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers, like primary caregiver mothers, spent more time smiling. imitating and holding babies than the secondary caregiver fathers. Smiling, imitating and holding babies are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony which which are part of the process of attachment formation
So it seems that fathers have the potential to be the more emotion-focused primary attachment figure they can provide the responsiveness required for a close emotional attachment but perhaps only express this when given the role of primary caregiver.
