cultural variations

• what is meant by cultural variation?

  differences in norms and values that exist between people in different cultural groups
• what was van izjendoorn's study intending to look at?

  the proportions of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant attachments of a range of countries to assess cultural variation
• explain how van izjendoorn studied cultural variation in attachment

  located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been used and meta-analysed the data from them

  - across 8 different countries
• explain the findings of van Ijzendoorn's study

  - secure was the most common across all cultures

  - individualist cultures: rates of insecure-resistant were similar to Ainsworth (below 14%)

  - collectivist cultures (Japan, Isreal): insecure-resistant rates were above 25% + insecure-avoidant was reduced

  - there was more variation between studies within countries than between countries
• what were the conclusions from van Ijzendoorn's study?

  secure attachment style is the norm in a wide range of cultures --> supports Bowlby's idea that attachment is innate

  HOWEVER cultural variations have influence on attachment types
• what is meant by individualist culture?

  a culture that values the individual more than the group
• what is meant by collectivist culture?

  culture that focuses on communal relationships with others such as family, friends, and community
• which country showed the highest rates of insecure avoidant?

  germany
• which country showed the highest rates of insecure resistant?

  Japan and Isreal
• name one strength of research into cultural variations

  INDIGENOUS RESEARCHERS:

  < psychologists were from the same cultural background as participants which means that any potential problems in cross-cultural research can be avoided, eg. language barrier

  = enhances validity
• name one limitation of research into cultural variations

  CONFOUNDING VARIABLES:

  < studies conducted in different countries aren't matched for methodology when they're compared with reviews or meta-analysed

  < examples of confounding variables: social class, environment, room size, availability of interesting toys

  = this means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross cultural patterns of attachment