the role of the father Flashcards
is the father always the actual father?
no not always a biological one just child’s closest male caregiver
what did Schaffer and Emmerson find?
- father only primary attachment figure for 3% of families
—> by 18 months 75% of infants formed attachment to father (determined by separation anxiety when father walks away)= suggests father plays a role - multiple attachments by 10/11 months
- 18 months 31% had 5+ attachments
what is the biological evidence for men?
- men are led receptive and sensitive to needs of an attachment due to hormonal differences
e.g. women= have more oestrogen (hormone linked to nurture) = modifies neurotransmitter’s responsible for cognitive and emotional processes = women more naturally emotionally sensitive
BUT - men don’t have oestrogen= not equipped for caregiving –> idea is socially sensitive as saying father can’t do it!
what did Grossman et al do?
- longitudinal study to see if male adult caregivers make unique contribution to early development —> he looked at attachment in infants until teenage years studied both parents and their relationship with their child and how this predicted future attachment in adolescence—> found fathers quality of play and stimulation with babies = related to child’s quality of attachment in adolescence—> suggests fathers plan different role to mother
Whag did Field 1978 find
- evidence that when father take on primary attachment figure they adopt more nurturing and sensitive behaviors
—> Field 1978 filmed 4 month old babies interacting with :
primary caregivers who were mother
primary caregiver who were fathers
secondary caregivers who were fathers
—> found primary caregiver father spent more time smiling and interacting and holding their babies compared to secondary —> behaviors part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony
eval point 1
real world application- helps parents choose who to make primary caregiver
—> research helps parents make informed decisions on which parents return to work = implications on society e.g. heterosexual parents informed that the father is capable of being primary attachment figure so mother not pressured to not work —> paternity and maternity leave now etc and less parental
anxiety
eval point 2
Grossman study doesn’t account for non-heterosexual parents
he suggests fathers have distinct role in child’s development for plan and stimulation BUT studies such as McCallum and Golomba found single mums/lesbians children do not develop any differently which would be expected from Grossman findings - suggests role of father isn’t as important as study suggests
eval point 3
difficult to research the role of the father —> influenced by factors like work - life balance, age , health, social roles for me. —> means role of father is unclear and not definitive
—> researcher may also be stereotypical e.g. father are not primary caregivers etc = unintentional bias and not objective reality
What did Lamb 1987 suggest?
- Doesn’t support biological evidence
- fathers as main caregiver quickly develop same level of sensitivity–> there are biological differences but they don’t have the same impact
Who supports biological evidence?
- Hardy (1999)–> supports idea of biology —> fathers are less able to detect low levels of infant distress than mothers.
Key statistics
- Average% of working mothers globally= 50% vs 75% in UK
- 2023- 16% single fathers UK
How has the role of the father changed- Traditional approach?
- Father= seen as playmate, rough + tumble play, fun parent, risk taker
vs
mother= nurturer + emotional
How has the role of the father changed- modern approach?
- modern role of father= play bases, providing stimulation, less predictable play than mothers
Is talking style of mother and father the same?
NO different (way of talking to child)
- Father= structure around active play
- Mother= primarily emotional, soothes + reassures infant, use wider range of vocab
what are some issues with research into talking styles?
- cultural differences in research –> same talking style not shown in middle class Indian families –> likely we’re cultual bias as usually tailored towards Western cultures
Issues with psychology- WEIRD?
Research is often conducted in
Westernised
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democracies
–> and then it is applied to everyone –> can’t assume the fathers role is the same in all cultures
what did Pleck suggest? (2010)
- suggested amount of time a father spends with an infant is a measure of involvement in parenting —> saying its quantity of time spent
BUT
other researchers suggests its quality (Lamb and Tamis- Le Monda (2004))
what are Lamb et al’s 3 dimensions to capture fathers involvement?
Interaction- quantity of father engage with child (quantity)
Accessibility- how physically and emotionally accessible he is (quality)
Responsibility- extent to which he takes on ‘caretaking’ tasks
study on social development?
Verissimo et al (2011)
- examined relationships between children’s attachment to both of their parents and late popularity in nursery scl
—> quality of relationship between fathers and toddlers significantly correlated with number of friends at pre school
—> appears to be more important than toddler mother relationships
—> positive correlation
BUT correlation does not equal causation so you don’t know for certain if it wasn’t because of the father
