3. The role of the father

• Why do infants go to their mothers ?

  - Seek comfort and be nurtured.

  - Mothers seem to care more for the child's emotional needs.
• Why do infants go to their fathers ? - AO1


  - To play, feel excited as they encourage physical activities.
• What sort of attachment figure are fathers for infants usually ? - AO1

  Secondary attachment figure.
• What question did Grossman (2002) hope to answer ? - AO1

  Do male caregivers make a unique contribution to the formation of early development ?
• What sort of study did Grossman (2002) carry out? - AO1

  A longitudinal study.
• What is a longitudinal study ? - AO1

  Research that goes on for a longer period of time (over a year.
• Grossman (2002) procedure - AO1

  - Studied baby attachments until they were teens.

  - Looking at both the parents behaviours and what effect it had on babies later attachments.
• Grossman (2002) finding - AO1

  - The mothers attachment was more related to the quality of later attachments rather than the father.

  - Also found that the quality of the father play was also related to their adolescent relationships

  - This indicates that mothers and fathers had a different role when it came to the attachments formed in adolescence.

  - A fathers role was more greatly related to play and simulation rather than emotional development
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) aims - AO1


  How do infants form early attachments ?
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964) procedure - AO1

  - 60 babies were assessed at regular intervals by asking the mothers questions about their separation anxiety and stranger anxiety.
• According to Schaffer and Emerson when did majority of infants form attachments with their mothers ? AO1

  At around 7 months.
• What percentage of infants formed primary attachments with their fathers ? - AO1

  According to Schaffer and Emerson only 3%.
• In how many cases where the mother and father both primary attachment figures? - AO1

  27%.
• By how many months had infants already formed attachments ? - AO1

  18 months.
• Field (1978) procedure - AO1

  - Filmed 4 month old babies interacting with PCG mothers, PCG and SCG fathers.
• Field (1978) findings - AO1

  - PCG fathers and mothers spent more time hugging, smiling and imitating babies than SCG fathers.
• Field (1978) conclusion - AO1

  - Fathers have the potential to be more emotion focused - perhaps only when they are given the role of PCG.
• Confusion over research questions - AO3

  - Each one of these researchers look into different things.

  - Some are interested in the role of the father as PAF and others look at them a SAF.

  - The former have said that fathers can take on a more maternal role but the later says that they have a different more distinct role apart from mothers.

  - This makes it hard to answer the simple question of "what is the role of the father" when everyone is asking different questions.

  - The answer would depend on the question being asked
• Conflicting evidence - AO3

  - Grossman found that fathers play played a role in attachments formed by infants in their adolescents

  - However, MacCallum and Golombok (2004) found that children who grew up in families with single mothers or lesbian couples developed no differently to ones that grew up in "conventional" families".

  - This means that whether or not fathers have any distinct role is a question that remains unanswered
• Biology stereotypes - AO3


  The fact that fathers tend not to become the primary attachment figure could simply be down to the result of traditional gender roles, in which women are expected to be more caring and nurturing than men. On the other hand, it could be that female hormones (oestrogen) create higher levels of nurturing and therefore women are biologically predisposed to be the primary attachment figure. This confirms that there is a difference between mothers and fathers in the role of rearing children and it can be down to an individual's nature but also their experiences of nurture.