Role of the Father Flashcards
Outline Schaffer and Emerson findings into role of the father.
Majority of babies become attached to their mother first and secondary attachments to fathers happen a few weeks or months after.
Outline Grossmann’s longitudinal study.
Looked at parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of children’s attachments into teens.
Found that quality of attachment with the father was less important than mothers.
Fathers may be less important in long-term emotional development.
What is the fathers role in attachment?
Father’s tole in attachment is play and stimulation not nurturing.
Name evidence for fathers as primary caregivers.
Field filmed 4-month-old babies and found primary caregiver dads spent more time smiling, imitating and holding infants hands than secondary caregiver fathers.
What does Field’s research suggest is the key to attachment?
Key to attachment is the level or responsiveness not the gender of the parent.
What are the economic implications of saying the father can also provide good attachment?
Mothers don’t feel as pressured to stay at home and can feel more comfortable about going back to work if it is necessary economically.
What evidence undermines the idea of fathers having distinct roles?
Other studies have found that children growing up in same-sex or single parent families don’t develop differently to those in two-parent families, so the father’s role as a secondary attachment figure is not important like Grossmann claimed.
Why is social bias a problem with observing caregiver-infant interactions?
Stereotypes of fathers being more playful and mothers being more nurturing may cause unintentional observer bias, as the observer sees what they expect to see.
