The role of the father Flashcards
Do babies attach to fathers - give a study to support answer
Available evidence suggests that fathers are much less likely to become babies’ first attachment figure compared to mothers. For example in Schaffer and Emerson’s (1960) study, they found that the majority of babies first attached to their mother around 7 months and only 3% of cases was the father the first attachment figure. Although in 27% of cases the father and mother were jointly attached to the infant. However, this study also did show that by 18 months, 75% of infants had formed an attachment with their father – this was determined by the fact that the babies showed ‘separation protest’ with the father walked away.
explain grossman study and what it tells us ab role of the father figure
Grossman et al. (2002) carried out a longitudinal study where babies’ attachments were studied until they were in their teens. The researchers looked at both parents’ behaviour and the quality of their relationships with their children. It was found that quality of a baby’s attachment with mothers but not fathers was related to attachments in adolescence. This finding suggests that attachment to fathers is less important than attachment to mothers. Although Grossman did find that the quality of fathers’ play with babies was related to the quality of adolescent attachments. This suggests that the father have a different role to the mother. The fathers role is therefore more to do with play and stimulation than emotional development.
What is a primary attachment
A primary attachment is the first attachment that an infant forms with their caregiver (usually the mother) and happened around 7 months.
can fathers be the primarfy attachment
Fathers tend to be the secondary attachment figures. However, research has shown that when fathers do take on the role of a primary caregiver they are able to adopt the emotional role that the mother usually shows. For example, in one study Field (1978) filmed 4 month old babies interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers and primary caregiver fathers. It was found that primary caregiver fathers like primary caregiver mothers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding their babies than secondary caregiver fathers. Smiling, imitating and holding are all part of caregiver and infant interactions such as interactional synchrony and reciprocity and are part of attachment formation. This study supports the idea that fathers can definitely be the primary attachment figure just like the mother!
Strengths of the role of the father
Real-world application – one strength of the role of the father is that it can be used to offer advice to parents – for example, parents to be may sometimes be concerned about who should take on the primary caregiver role. Mothers may feel pressured to stay at home due to society’s stereotypical views on the role of the father and mother in child rearing. Fathers may feel pressured to focus on work rather than parenting. Thus research into the role of the father can be used to offer reassurance that fathers can be as equally competent as mothers in fulfilling the role of the primary attachment figure. Similarly lesbian parents can also be informed that not having a father will not affect a child’s development (see MacCallum and Golombrook (2004)).
Weaknesses of the role of the father
Confusion over research questions.
Research into the role of fathers is confusing because different researchers are interested in finding out about different questions. Some researchers want to see the role of the father as a secondary attachment figure and some as a primary attachment figure – this them makes it difficult to answer the question – what is the role of the father?
What about children who are born in single parent families and generally have no father?
The study by Grossman (see the top of this page) found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had an important role in their children’s development. However other studies such as MacCallum and Golombok (2004) have found that children growing up only with their mothers or same sex couples, do not develop any differently to children who are reared in two-parent heterosexual families – these findings seems to suggest that the role of the father is not important! This is a weakness into the role of a father since it is suggesting that all children do not need a father!
Why don’t fathers generally become primary attachments?
This could be due to the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men – therefore fathers simply don’t feel they should act like that. On the other hand, it could be that female hormones (such as oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary attachment figure. This could also be due to the fact that Bowlby, who was an influential psychologist, argued that the role of the father was primarily economic and thus not really important in the nurturing of infants!
