The role of the father

• Fathers as a secondary attachment- Schaffer and Emerson evidence

  • Within a few weeks/months after 7 months babies formed secondary attachments with their father
  • 75% formed a secondary attachment to the father by 18 months
  • Supported by the fact infants protested when the father walked away
  • Suggests fathers do have a role but it is not like mothers
• What suggests father attachment is less important?

  • Longitudinal study by Grossman
  • Assessed parents' behaviour and quality of children's attachments into their teens
  • Quality of infant attachment with mothers was related to children's attachments in adolescence (not fathers suggesting attachment was less important)
• What further findings did Grossman find to suggest fathers had a playmate role in attachment?

  • Quality of fathers' play with infants was related to quality of adolescent attachments
  • Suggests fathers have a playmate role rather than nurturing
• Evidence to support the idea that fathers can be primary caregivers?

  • Field (1978)
  • Filmed 4-month old babies face-to-face interaction with primary caregiver mothers, fathers and secondary caregiver fathers
  • Primary CG fathers (like mothers) spent more time smiling imitating and holding infants than secondary (example of reciprocity)
  • This behaviour appears to be important in forming an attachment, suggests fathers can be a more nurturing attachment figure
  • Attachment depends on responsiveness not gender
• What is an issue with the inconsistent findings on fathers? (AO3)

  • Different researchers researched different questions within role of the father
  • E.g. looking at the father as a secondary figure, others looked at primary
  • Issue as psychologists cannot easily answer the simple question and may affect the reliability of overall conclusions and generalisations
• What is an issue research to suggest father's have a distinct role on children who do not have fathers?

  • Grossman found fathers as a secondary figure have a distinct role in child's development
  • However MacCallum and Golombok found children growing up in single or same-sex parent families do not develop any differently from heterosexual/nuclear families
  • Suggests the father as a secondary figure is not as important as if it were, child's development would be impacted
• What is another explanation to why fathers do not become primary cg's/attachments?

  • May be due to traditional gender roles reinforcing the father to not act as caring and nurturing
  • Also influence of female hormones (e.g. oestrogen) that creates high levels of nurturing
  • Suggests women are biologically pre-disposed to be the primary caregiver instead of men and may explain why fathers are less likely/less important (TAYLOR ET AL)