Role of the Father

Describe results of Schaffer and Emerson

-majority babies attached to mothers first

-at 18 months 75% formed attachment with father as protested when father walked away

Describe results of Field's research

-when father primary caregiver they adopt typical behaviours of mother

-primary fathers spent more time smiling, imitating and holding baby then secondary

-shows fathers can also be nurturing

-concludes that key to attachment relationship is level of responsiveness and not gender of parent

Describe results of Paquette and Lamb's research

-fathers more likely to foster risk taking behaviour than mothers by engaging in physical and enjoyable games

-fathers preferred in positive emotional state when stimulation is wanted whereas mothers preferred in distressing state for comfort

Evaluate contradicting research

-weakness is that there is contradicting research

-Sarah Hrdy found men were unable to detect low level infant distress

-Taylor suggests that father's lack higher levels of oestrogen needed to be truly nurturing whereas mothers have high levels of oestrogen

-even though there is research to show importance of role of father there is also research showing fathers are not as important as mothers

Evaluate findings into role of father

-inconsistent findings

-research into role of father is confusing as different researchers interested in diff questions e.g. understanding role of father as secondary or primary figure

-some tended to find that fathers can take on a maternal role

-problem as psychologists find it difficult to answer "what is the role of the father" as inconsistent findings lead to no conclusions being drawn

Evaluate difference in roles of mother and father

-role of father can be explained through biological processes + gender stereotyping

-fathers not being primary attachment figure could be due to trad gender roles where women expected to be more nurtuing and caring than men - Sarah hrdy findings

-shows differences between mothers and fathers and that role of rearing children can be down to individual's nature but also experiences of nurture

Evaluate why children aren't diff without fathers

-weakness is that if father's play such an important role why children without father's aren't diff

-Grossman's study found father as attachment figure to be important but MacCallum and Golombok found children on single/same-sex families didn't develop any differently to heterosexual families

-shows perhaps fathers role as secondary isn't important

Evaluate social sensitivity

-implicatiions for society if fathers can take on role of mother

-laws regarding paternity changing so parents can share time equally and mothers can return to workforce and father can take childcare roles

-changes in equality regarding custody

-shows greater social acceptance to single fathers and role in parenting

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