The Role of The Father Flashcards
Historically what does Schaffer and Emerson (1964) say about Fathers?
- Fathers are the secondary attachment figures
- Fathers were only the primary attachment in 3% of babies
What do western cultures believe about the role of the father?
- There is now an expectation that the father should play a greater role in bringing up children
- As the number of mothers working full time has increased in recent decades and therefore fathers have a more active role
Explain Grossman (2002)
- Conducted a longitudinal study looking at both parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality of attachments
- Quality of infant attachments with mothers (not fathers) was related to children’s attachment in adolescence
- HOWEVER, the quality of the fathers play with infants was related to their attachments in adolescence
What does Grossman (2002) prove?
Fathers have a different role in attachment, one that is related to play, rather than nurturing
Explain the Israel Study
- There’s nothing inherent about women that makes them “better” at parenting
- Primary caregivers develop neural pathways in their exhausted brains that make them more responsive to the emotional cues of children
- The study found that the same pathways developed in fathers who were primary caregivers as in mothers
- Some evidence to suggest that when fathers take on the role of being the primary caregiver, they adopt behaviours more typical of mothers
What Research supports the Israel Study?
Field (1978)
What was the Method of Field (1978)?
Filmed 4 month old babies in face to face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers
What were the results of Field (1978)?
Primary caregiver fathers (like mothers), spent more time smiling, imitating and holding the infant than secondary caregiver fathers
What is the conclusion of Field(1978)?
The key to attachment relationships is the level of responsiveness NOT the gender of the parent
Evaluation of Fathers role
- Hard to generalise - Numerous factors affect the fathers roles and the impact this has e.g. culture, fathers age, how long are they away
- Economic implications - mothers will feel pressured to stay home because research says they are vital for healthy development
- How important is it? McCallum and Golombok found that children growing up in single/same sex families didn’t develop differently
What are the Implications of the Fathers role?
- Social policy - paid paternity leave was only introduced in 2002 in the UK
- Stereotypical views of men - they should be the breadwinner
- Cultural differences - fathers in middle class Indian families are less likely to engage in play
