Role of the Father

• What percentage of infants formed an attachment with their father by 18 months?

  75%
• What determined the attachment to the father in the study by Schaffer and Emmerson?

  The father walking away indicated attachment
• At what age do most babies become attached to their mother?

  Around 7 months
• What did Grossman et al. investigate in their study on father attachment?

  • Babies' attachments into their teens
  • Relationship between parents' behavior and quality of later attachments
• What was found about the quality of attachment to mothers and fathers in Grossman et al.'s study?

  Only attachment to mothers related to adolescent attachments
• What does Grossman et al.'s finding suggest about the importance of attachment to fathers compared to mothers?

  Attachment to fathers is less important
• What aspect of father involvement was related to the quality of adolescent attachments according to Grossman et al.?

  The quality of fathers' play with babies
• What distinctive role do fathers have compared to mothers according to Grossman et al.?

  • Fathers focus on play
  • Mothers focus on emotional development
• What did Field's study involve regarding interactions with babies?

  Filmed interactions with different caregivers
• Who spent more time smiling, imitating, and holding babies in Field's study?

  Primary caregiver fathers
• What does Field's study suggest about fathers as primary attachment figures?

  Fathers can be emotionally focused attachment figures
• What condition is necessary for fathers to express their potential as primary attachment figures according to Field?

  When given the role of primary caregiver
• Role of Father AO3 - Inconsistent findings


  • different researchers are interested in different research questions
  • some psychologists interested in understanding role of the fathers as a secondary attachment figure, others are interested in fathers as a primary attachment figure
  • secondary - finds father behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role
  • primary - finds fathers can take on a maternal role
  • this means that the role of the father become unclear because of contradicting evidence on primary and secondary attachment figure fathers
• Role of Father AO3 - Conflicting evidence


  • Grossman research suggests that fathers as a secondary attachment figure had an important and distinct role in children’s development which suggests that children growing up in single mother/lesbian parent families would turn out different from those in two heterosexual families
  • However MacCallum and Golombok consistently found that children growing up in single or same sex families do not develop differently from those in heterosexual families
  • This means that fathers as secondary attachment figures is not important
• Role of Father AO3 - Biased research 


  • Preconceptions about how fathers should be or behave are based by stereotypical accounts and images of parenting roles
  • Fathers do not become primary attachment figures because of traditional gender roles - women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men which may cause observer bias whereby observers mostly focus on the mother as that is what they are expected to see
  • Oestrogen creates higher levels of nurturing therefore they are biologically predisposed to being the primary attachment figure which puts men at a biological disadvantage