Cultural variations

• ·       Psychologists identify 2 different kinds of cultures​
• ·       Individualist cultures à focus on the individual (e.g.: Britain and the US). Each person in the society is concerned with their own needs, or the needs of the immediate family. ​
• ·       Collectivists cultures à focus on the needs of the group rather than the individuals (e.g.: China, Japan, India), where people share possessions and childcare. In collectivist cultures, multiple attachments are more common​
• ·       Sagi et al. (1994) compared attachments in infants raised in communal environments with infants raised in family-based sleeping arrangements.
• Closeness of attachments with mothers was twice as common is family-based environment than in communicable environment​
• ·       This suggests that the stages of attachment apply specifically to individualist cultures, therefore the theory cannot be generalised and is not universal