The role of the father Flashcards
What did Schaffer and Emerson (1964) suggest the percentage of children would have their father as a) primary attachment b) join attachment with their mother and father and c) an attachment with their father after 18 months?
a)only 3% of babies first attachment was father
b)27% of babies father and mother as joint attachment
c)75% of babies formed an attachment at 18 months
What did Tiffany Field (1978) find out about how fathers as primary attachment figures?
-filmed 4 month old babies in interactions with primary caregiver mothers and secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
- primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time smiling and imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers
-Fathers could adopt emotional role typically associated with mothers
What did Grossmann et al. (2002) find out about the role of the father?
-father’s distinctive role was to give play and stimulation not emotional development
What are the strengths of research into role of father?
-Real world application: can be used to give advice to parents who are pressured to go to work (men) and stay at home (women) which may not be economically viable and reassures them that fathers are perfectly capable to be primary attachment figures which can reduce parental anxiety.
What are weaknesses of research into role of father?
-Conflicting evidence: longitudinal studies suggest fathers have roles as secondary attachment figure to provide play and stimulation so therefore without the presence of a father development would be hindered. However in Mccallum and Golombok (2004) show that children do not show difficulties in same sex relationships. This means psychologists are still unsure if the father has a distinctive role
However, it could be that in same-sex relationships, one parent accommodates to the role of the father. This means that a father may have a distinct role, bur families can adopt to this role.
-Confusion over research:lack of clarity on the role of father. In primary attachments they adopt a maternal role but as a secondary attachment they have a distinctive role of play and stimulation. This means that the role of the father is different depending on the situation which can make answering the question: “What is the role of the father” difficult.
