The role of the father

Question 1

Role of the father

Answer 1

• Bowlby believed that children have one atttachment figure - usually the mother
• traditionally fathers have been seen to play a minor role in parenting
• historically, children would be raised by mainly married couples
• fathers would go to work and mothers would take care of the children
• some researchers argue that fathers are not equipped to form attachments, both psychologically and socially
• the lack of oestrogen in men means that fathers are not biologically equipped to form close bonds with their children

Question 2

Grossman (2002)

Answer 2

• carried out a longitudinal study looking at the quality of attachments with mothers and fathers
• found that attachments with mothers were more important for the developmemt in adolescence suggesting that father attachment was less important
• it was found that fathers have a more important/different role to do with play and stimulation and less to do with nurturing

Question 3

Evaluation

Answer 3

- Outdated
- Research
- Observer bias
+
- Opposing evidence from Field (1978)

Question 4

- Outdated

Answer 4

• increase in working women has meant that this view is now changing
• many men are now playing a bigger role now in their childrens development
• this has meant that men take part in more child caring responsibilities at home and therefore are more nurturing

Question 5

- Research

Answer 5

• research has found children with secure attachments to their fathers go on to have better relationships with their peers, less behavioural problems and are more able to regulate their emotions
• children who grow up without fathers have often been seen to do less well at school and have higher levels or risk taking aggressive behaviour, especially boys
• this opposes Grossman’s findings that the father is not important

Question 6

- Observer bias

Answer 6

• there are cultural and social expectations that view child rearing as stereotypically feminine
• fathers are sterotyped to be less involved in nurturing their children
• these stereotypes may cause unintentional observer bias whereby obserevers see what they expect rather than recording actual reality
• this menas that observer bias reduces the internal validity

Question 7

+

Answer 7

• some studies have found that children growing up in single or same sex parent families dont develop differently from those in two-parent families
• this supports the view that fathers dont play an important role in nurturing

Question 8

- Opposing evidence from Field (1978)

Answer 8

• observed 4 month old babies in interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
• it was found that fathers who were primary caregivers displayed similar behaviours to primary caregiver mothers
• they displayed traits that were important for the development of an attachment with an infant
• this suggests that men can be the nurturing attachment figure if needed, the key to the attachment relationship is the level of sensitive responsiveness, not the gender of the parent

Question 9

What do you think are the economic implications of research into the role of the father?

Answer 9

• increasingly fathers remain at home and therefore contribute less to the economy consequently so more mothers may return to work and contribute to the economy
• research findings may lead to changing laws on paternity leave - government- funded so it affects the economy; impact upon employers
• gender pay gap may be reduced if parental roles are regarded as more equal