Role of father

• AO1-

  Schaffer & Emerson found 75% of babies formed an attachment with their fathers by the age of 18 months
• AO1-

  -Grossman conducted a longitudinal study looking at parents behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the attachment into teen years

  -Quality of attachment with mother was important, but quality of fathers was not, this suggests fathers behaviour was less important

  -Therefore, fathers may be less important in long term emotional development
• AO1- 


  -Grossman also found that quality of fathers play with infants was related to children's attachments.

  -Suggests that fathers have a different role in attachment, one that is more to do with play and stimulation and less to do with nurturing
• AO1- 


  -Some evidence suggests that when fathers take on role of primary caregiver, they adopt behaviours more typically seen in mothers

  -Field (1978) investigated reactions of infants to fathers who were primary caregivers and compared to interactions of infants with fathers who were not primary care givers and found that primary caregiving fathers spent more time interacting, smiling, imitating and holding infants. Key attachment is level of responsiveness
• AO3- Weakness 


  -Much of the research appears to give a contradictory picture.

  -This is because a limitation is that research has focused on different aims

  -Research that has looked at fathers as a secondary attachment figure have tended to see fathers as behaving differently from mothers , whereas research that has looked at fathers as primary attachment figure have looked at fathers taking on maternal role

  -Means that we can't easily answer question 'what is role of the father?'
• AO3- Weakness (social biases)

  -Further limitation is there are certain preconceptions about fathers and mothers should behave

  -Could cause observer bias, whereby observers see what they expect.

  -Argued that gender stereotypes and socialisation led us to hold certain expectations regarding role of parents

  -Therefore, difficult to disentangle social biases from conclusions regarding the role of the father
• AO3- weakness (secondary attachment figure)

  -If secondary attachment figures such as fathers play an important role in childs development ( suggested by Grossman) then why don't children who do not have fathers develop differently?

  -MacCullum & Golombok (3004) looked at children in single or same sex parent families and found that they do not develop any differently, suggesting a father is not important as a secondary attachment figure
• AO3 - Weakness (Bowlby)

  -He reasoned that if patterns of attachment are a product of how mother has treated them, could be anticipated that the pattern he develops with father is the product of how their father has treated them

  -He suggests that fathers can fill a role closely resembling that filled by mother but points out that in most cultures its uncommon

  -Argues that most families with young children, fathers role is difficult

  -According to him a father is more likely to engage in physically active play than mother
• AO3- Weakness (Brown) 


  -Brown et al investigated father involvement, parental security and father child attachment security at 13 months and 3 years of age

  -Results demonstrated that involvement and sensitivity influenced father child attachment security at age 3

  -Involvement was greater predictor of secure attachment when fathers were rated as less sensitive.

  -Indicates that gender of caregiver is not crucial in predicting attachment types/quality rather it is extent of caregiver involvement