A03

• What are the strengths of the role of the father?

  1. Practical implications (economic implications)
  2. Brain scans link oxytocin to paternal nurturing
• What are the limitations of the role of the father?

  1. Confusion over research questions
  2. If fathers have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers different?
  3. No control over other influences
• Strength = practical (economic) implications

  • Research such as Field shows that fathers can be primary caregivers
  • This has important practical applications for maternity/paternity, as this suggests this could be split and would have no impact on the child
  • It is used to the case in the UK that women are more likely to take more time to raise a child than men - research like this could help change this
• Strength = brain scans link oxytocin to paternal nurturing

  • A growing body of literature shows that paternal involvement plays a role in reducing child mortality and morbidity, and improving social, psychological and educational outcomes
  • Men can also undergo hormonal changes when they become fathers, including increases in oxytocin
  • Evidence shows that, in fathers, oxytocin facilitates physical stimulation of infants during play as well as the ability to synchronise their emotions with their children
  • Oxytocin is a hormone known to play a role in social bonding
• Limitation = confusion over research questions

  • A weakness of the research is lack of clarity over the question being asked
  • Some psychologists are interested in understanding the role of fathers as secondary attachment figures whereas others are more concerned with fathers as primary caregivers
  • Researchers looking at the role of the father as a secondary attachment figure tend to see fathers as behaving differently from mothers and having a distinct role, whereas researchers looking at the father as a primary attachment figure have found that fathers can take on a ‘maternal’ role
• Limitation = if fathers have a distinct role why aren’t children without fathers different?

  • Grossman found that fathers as a secondary attachment figure has an important role in their children’s development
  • If this was the case then children without fathers would be expected to develop differently
  • MacCallum and Golombok (2004) found that children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently from those in two parent heterosexual families
  • These results would seem to suggest that the father’s role as a secondary attachment figure is not important
• Limitation = no control over other influences

  • There are numerous other influences which may impact on a child’s emotional development
  • For example, their culture, the father‘s beliefs, the father’s age, marital intimacy, the amount of time the fathers spends away from home
  • It is difficult to control all these variables and therefore making it hard to draw conclusions about the role of the father