Role Of The Father

Question 1

Who are the researchers involved in the role of the father? what is their research question?

Answer 1

1. Schaffer and Emerson – Do babies attach to fathers and if so when?
2. Grossman – Does attachment to fathers hold a unique value in a child’s development
3. Field et al – Are fathers able to take on a similar primary attachment role to mothers?

Question 2

What are the findings of Schaffer and Emerson – Do babies attach to fathers and if so when?

Answer 2

• 3% of cases the father was the first sole object of attachment
• 27% of cases the father was the joint first object of attachment
  -75% of babies formed an attachment with their father by the age of 18 months

Question 3

What Grossman did observe in his study? Length of observation?

Answer 3

• Researchers observed parental behaviour and how this affects the quality of the babies’ later attachments
• observed children from babies until their teen years

Question 4

What Grossman did conclude in his study?

Answer 4

The quality of attachment with mother was deemed more important
This is because the stronger their attachment, the better their attachments in adolescence

Question 5

What did Grossman state about the role of the father and what does this suggest?

Answer 5

• The father is more important in terms of play
• This suggests the father’s role is more to do with play and stimulation, whereas the mother’s is to do with emotional development

Question 6

What were results from Field’s research

Answer 6

• Found that fathers who were primary attachment figures acted in very similar ways to mothers who were primary attachment figures towards their children.
• So, fathers are able to take on the more caring, nurturing role usually associated with the mother

Question 7

What are the economic implications of research into the role of the father

Answer 7

• Changing laws on paternity leave
  -Increasingly fathers remain at home and mothers returning to the work force
• Gender pay gap may be reduced

Question 8

What is the strength of role the father in regards to real world application?

Answer 8

P: Research can be used to offer advice to parents.
EE: it can offer reassuring advice to single parents or same-sex couples that fathers are capable of being primary attachment figures.
- Lesbian parents and single mothers can also be informed that not having a father around does not affect a child’s development.
L: This means that parental anxiety can be reduced.

Question 9

What is the weakness of role the father in regards to observer bias?

Answer 9

P: Social stereotypes about ‘typical’ parenting behaviour may affect the validity of observational research.
EE: Researchers may have preconceptions about how parents should behave (i.e. fathers more playful, stricter) which may cause unintentional observer bias whereby observers record what they expect to see rather than reality.
L: As such, conclusions on the role of the father in attachment may be invalid and based off social biases.

Question 10

What is the weakness of role the father in regards to confusion over research questions ?

Answer 10

P: A weakness of research into the role of fathers is lack of clarity over the question being asked.
EE: ‘What is the role of the father’ - is a complicated question. (Some interpret this as looking into the secondary role of fathers, others see it as looking at the primary role.
L: Makes it difficult to offer a simple answer, it depends what is being discussed

Question 11

What is the weakness of role the father in regards to it being heteronormative ?

Answer 11

P: Research into the role of the father is heteronormative
EE: Research assumes that babies have two opposite gender-parents- which isn’t always the case.
So if the father has a distinctive role, we would expect single-mothers or lesbian-parent families to turn out different - but research shows they don’t.
L: Therefore, research into the role of the father is outdated.

Question 12

What is the weakness of role the father in regards to conflicting evidence?

Answer 12

P: Findings into role of father vary.
EE: Grossman et al (2002) suggested fathers have an important distinct secondary role. However, McCallum and Golombok (2004) showed that children of same-sex couple do not develop any differently.
L: Therefore questioning whether fathers do have a distinctive role.