The Role Of The Father Flashcards
Describe what Schaffer and Emerson found in terms of whether infants attach to their father and when.
- Majority of babies become attached to mother around 7 months.
Only 3% of cases showed attachment to the father first. In 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment with mother. (3+27 = 30) - BUT most fathers do go on to become important attachment figure—75% of babies formed an attachment with their father by 18 months. (7+1 = 8)
Describe the procedure of the study suggested that the role of the father more to do with play and stimulation?
Grossman (2002). (Gross cuz he’s visited and played 44 families over the years without washing)
Longitudinal study of 44 families. Compared the mothers’ and fathers’ role in the development of their children’s attachment at 6, 10 and 16 years.
Describe the findings and conclusions of Grossman (2002).
Quality of father play ( like the quality of attachment in mother) was related to attachments in adolescence. Suggests fathers play a different role in attachment, not to do with nurture but with play and stimulation.
Describe the procedure of the study that suggested that fathers can act as primary caregivers?
Field (1978). (Field (who likes film) is a primary caregiver father)
Filmed 4-month old babies interactions with primary caregiver mothers and fathers and secondary caregiver fathers.
Describe the findings and conclusions of Field (1978).
Primary caregiver fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infant (like primary caregiver mothers) compared to secondary caregiver fathers.
Suggests fathers do have the potential to provide responsiveness required for close emotional attachment but only express this when given the role of primary caregiver.
Kew to developing attachment is responsiveness and behaviour not gender.
2 Strengths of the role of the father
Practical applications:
Research such as Field shows that fathers can be primary caregivers.
This has important practical applications for maternity/paternity,
as this suggests this could be split and would have no impact on the child.
Brain scans link oxytocin to parental nurturing:
Men can also undergo hormonal changes when they become fathers,
including increases in oxytocin. Evidence shows that, in fathers, oxytocin facilitates physical stimulation of infants during play as well as the ability to synchronize their emotions with their children.
2 Limitations of the role of the father
Children without fathers are not different, so surely fathers do not play that important of a role:
MacCallum and Golombok (2004) found children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently from those in two parent heterosexual families. These results would seem to suggest that the father’s role as a secondary attachment figure is not important.
No control over other influences:
There are numerous other influences which may impact on a child’s emotional development. For example, their culture, the father’s beliefs, the father’s age, marital intimacy, the amount of time the father spends away from home. It is difficult to control all these variables and therefore making it hard to draw conclusions about the role of the father
