Role of the father

• What does Bowlby's Monotropic Theory suggest?

  • Bowlby's Theory states that children form one special relationship with someone who is known as the primary care giver.
  • Bowlby said that this was the mother figure and that father's were more secondary attachments to the children such as offering financial support.
• How does Schaffer and Emerson demonstrate monotropy?

  • They found that only 3% of babies had their fathers as their primary caregiver
  • The majority of babies in the study, formed their first attachment with their mother (7 months) and the father was a secondary attachment
• How does Grossman demonstrate monotropy?

  • He performed a longitudinal study to find how the quality of attachment as a baby effected the quality of attachment into a child's teens.
  • He found that the quality of attachment with the mother was related to the child's attachment in their teens meaning that the father is less important
• What is wrong with Bowlby's theory?

  • It is outdated
  • Many researchers have found that fathers have a different role in a childs life such as teaching their child how to take risks and being more physical.
  • Geiger found that father's are more 'rough and tumble' whereas mothers are more caring and affectionate.
• How are Bowlby's claims limiting to the research of absent fathers?

  • Children who do not have a father are more likely to be less successful at school and have high levels of aggression - negative developmental outcomes
• What research shows that is it an absent parent not a father?

  • Research has found that a child who has been parented by a lesbian couple has positive developmental outcomes despite the fact that there is no father figure.
  • The assumption that the gender was an important factor for the childs development is not relevant here and is more to do with the lack of a parent.
  • This shows that the most important factor is having 2 parents, not the presence of a father
• What biological evidence shows that father's are less equipped to be a PCG?

  • Women's caring behaviour is evoked by their hormone oestrogen, suggesting they are naturally equipped to look after their child and become the primary care giver.
• What biological evidence is there to show that the father is equipped to be a PCG?

  • Men secrete oxytocin when interacting with new-born babies and therefore are able to take on the caregiving role.
• What did Field and Parke find?

  • Father's who were the PCG interacting more with their child than the secondary fathers - Field.
  • Mothers and Fathers respond the same to their child when it signals for interaction - Parke