Attachment to fathers

Question 1

What should A01 include?

Answer 1

• attachment to fathers a lot lower than mothers
• distinctive role for fathers (playmate)
  -fathers CAN be primary caregivers

Question 2

What did Schaffer & Emerson (1964) find about father attachment?

Answer 2

•. 3% of infants had the father as the first attachment figure.
• 27% had a joint first attachment with both parents.
• 75% had formed an attachment with their father by 18 months.

Question 3

What did Grossman (2002) find about the father’s role?

Answer 3

Grossman (2002) carried out a longitudinal study looking at
both the parents’ behaviour and its relationship to the quality
of the children’s attachment into their teens.

suggests role is one that is more to do with play and stimulation, and less to do with emotional development

Question 4

e

Question 5

What was Field (1978) research into fathers as primary caregiver?

Answer 5

Research
Field (1978) filmed 4-month-old babies in face-to-face interaction with
primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary
caregiver fathers. smiling, imitating and holding infants than the secondary caregiver fathers.
Primary caregiver fathers, like mothers, spent more time
This behaviour appears to be important in building an attachment with the
infant. It seems that fathers can be the more key to the attachment relationship is the level of the responsiveness not the
gender of the parent.

Question 6

Strength of father as play mate?

Answer 6

E: Research by Geiger (1996) found that a fathers’ play interactions were more
exciting in comparison to a mothers’. However, the mothers’ play interactions were
more affectionate and nurturing.

Question 7

Limitation of fathers being primary caregivers?

Answer 7

E: Hrdy (1999) found that fathers were less able to detect low levels of infant distress,
in comparison to mothers.
E: These results appear to support the biological explanation that the lack of estrogen
in men means that fathers are not equipped innately to form close attachments with
their children.

Question 9

What did Field (1978) find about primary caregiver fathers?

Answer 9

Fathers who were primary caregivers showed similar behaviors to mothers (smiling, imitating, holding).