Field (1978)

• She Filmed 4 month old babies in face-to-face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary caregiver fathers, and primary caregiver fathers
• Primary caregiver mothers and fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding babies than secondary caregiver fathers
• This suggests that fathers are able to take on the more caring, nurturing role usually associated with mothers
• smiling, imitating and holding babies are all part of reciprocity and interactional synchrony which, are part of the process of attachment formation
• fathers can provide the responsiveness required for a close emotional attachment but perhaps only express this when given the role of the primary caregiver