ABSTRACT
As recently as 1975, fathers were labeled the “forgotten contributors to child development” (Lamb, 1975), but that appellation is no longer true. Starting with ethological, historical and psychoanalytic perspectives this chapter presents a variety of ideas and studies that focus on fathers; their roles, their thoughts, their behaviors and contributions to child development. Psychological researchers are increasingly concerned with processes of development beyond those of the motherchild dyad. As a result, research on fathers, which in the past was limited to the study of father absence, now includes many direct investigations of fathers’ attitudes and behaviors. The proposition addressed in this chapter is that the father, as well as the mother, is a significant figure in the child’s social world, and adds a distinctive quality to child development. This approach, however, can only be supported by recent research because until very recently several barriers hindered the investigation of father-child relationships.
