Role of father and Multiple Attachments

• The father is anyone who takes on the role of the main caregiver and not necessarily the biological father. Infants turn to mothers to seek comfort and nurturing and turn to the fathers for play. Fathers are more playful and active so generally better at providing challenging situations. Fathers excite children, encouraging them to take risks whilst keeping them safe, which provides them with a secure environment to learn to be brave.
• Schaffer and Emerson found, when looking into the role of fathers as secondary attachment figures, that within a few weeks or months of the primary attachment, the infants formed secondary attachment to other family members, e.g. the father. In 75% of the infants studied, an attachment was formed with the father by the age of 18 months. This was determined by the infants protested when their father walked away (separation distress). So fathers are more likely to be secondary attachment figures that infants receive added support from, and provide an emotional safety net.
• • Grossman when carrying out a study looking at both parents' behaviour and its relationship to the quality of the children's attachments into their teens. Quality of infant attachment to mothers, but not fathers was related to children's attachment in adolescence, suggesting that the father's attachment was less important. Yet the quality of the father's play with infants was related to the quality of adolescent attachment. This suggests that fathers have a different role in attachment - one that is more to do with play and simulation and less to do with nurturing.
• There is some evidence that when fathers do take on the role of the PAF, the adopt behaviours more typical of mothers. Field filmed 4 month-old babies in face-face interactions with primary caregiver mothers, secondary and primary caregiver fathers. Primary caregiver fathers like mothers spent more time smiling, imitating, and holding infants than secondary caregiver fathers. So, fathers can be the more nurturing attachment figure. The key to the attachment relationship is the level of responsiveness, not the gender of the parent.
• Multiple attachments:

  • Schaffer and Emerson (1964) found that by the time infants were 18 months they had already formed multiple attachments.
  • Multiple attachments are whereby an infant forms several, different attachments with a range of people, usually a family member
• Multiple attachments:

  • The opposite idea to this is Monotropy, which was the theory of Bowlby
  • This states that an infant forms one main attachment with their primary care giver and this is then replicated throughout their life in their relationships with others.
  • This is part of Bowlby's theory of attachment, although most psychologists tend to support multiple attachments mo
• weakness:claims undermining the distinct role of fathers in attachment. For example, the claim that children without fathers are no different from those with fathers suggests that the father's role is secondary. This poses huge ethical issues as it is socially sensitive research. These claims clearly undermine the role of the father, as it could suggest that fathers do not play a significant role in their children's lives. This could create distress for them and may even lead to reduced rights for fathers in legal proceedings and thus wider society and so this research is not completely valid.
• There is undermining evidence for the roles of the father from research studies. For example Freeman et al. found that male children are more likely to prefer their father as an attachment figure than female children. This clearly is a weakness of the role of the father, as It suggests that fathers play a more distinct role in some attachments than others, so we cannot easily answer the question of: 'what is the role of the father?'. As the role is ambiguous, we cannot conclude that fathers have a completely valid role in attachment.
• undermining evidence for the importance of the role of the father in attachment from research studies. E.g.Grossman's study found that fathers as secondary attachment figures had a significant role in their child's development. Other studies have found that children growing up in a single-parent household or a same-sex parent households do not develop any differently from those in two parent heterosexual.
• Continuing weakness: undermining evidence for the importance of the role of the father in attachment from research studies. This clearly undermines the distinct role of the father as this would seem to suggest that the father's role as a secondary attachment figure is not important because those without fathers develop as well as those with fathers.
• strength: real world applications. E.g. the role on the father can be used to offer advice to parents. Parents and prospective parents sometimes agonise over decisions over like who should take primary caregiver tole. Mothers may feel pressurised to stay at home due to stereotypes and fathers to work to sustain the family. Yet, this not the best economical decision in some families. So research can be reassuring to parents. E.g. heterosexual parents can be informed that fathers are quite capable of becoming primary attachment figures (Field's study).
• continuing strength: real world application Also, same-sex parents and single-mother families can be informed that having a father around does not affect their child's development as they can take on the nurturing and play roles. This supports the external validity of the research as it can be used to reduce parental anxiety about the role of fathers.