the role of the father

Question 1

The role of the father: attachment to fathers

Answer 1

schaffer and emerson found that in only 3% of cases the father was the sole attachment figure. in 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with the mother.however it appears that fathers go on to become important objects of attachment. 75% of the babies researched formed an attachment with their father at 18 months of age

Question 2

distinctive role for fathers

Answer 2

Grossman et al.: carried out a longitudinal study where babies attachments were studied until they were into their teens. the researchers looked at both the parens behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the babies later attachment to other people. quality of attachment in adolescence was related to the quality of the babys attachment with their mother not their father. suggesting the the fathers attachment plays a less important role from the mothers. however, grossman et al. also found that the quality of the fathers play with their baby was related to the quality of adolescence attachments

Question 3

fathers as primary attachment figures

Answer 3

a babies primary attachemnt has emotional significance. a bays reltionship with the primary attachment figure forms the basis of all later close emotional relationships. some evidence suggests that when fathers do take on the role of the primary caregiver they are able to adopt the emotional role more typically associated with mothers

Question 4

Tiffany Field: fathers as primary attachment figures

Answer 4

filmed 4 month old babies face to face with their primary caregiver mothers and pg fathers, and secondary giver fathers. primary giver fathers, like pg mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies compared to the secondary caregiver fathers which are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony- part of attachment formation