Cultural variations in attachment

• What was van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)'s research?

  • Conducted a meta-analysis combining the findings of 32 replications of the Strange Situation in a variety of countries, based on the observations of over 2000 children
  • Secure attachment was the most common classification in all countries, but proportions varied from Britain's 75% to China's 50%
  • Individualist cultures had low rates of resistant attachment (under 14%), but collectivist cultures had rates of above 25% like China and Israel
• What explains cross cultural differences in Israel?

  • Due to being raised in a Kibbutz Israeli children are used to being separated from their mother explaining low separation anxiety
  • Not used to strangers explains high stranger anxiety
  • Explains high percentage of resistant behaviour due to different child-rearing practices rather than poor quality of attachment
• What explains cross cultural differences in Germany?

  • Grossmann et al: German parents promote a lot of independence and non-clingy children
  • Explains a high percentage of avoidant behaviour which is not due to poor quality of attachment but cultural values
• What did Simonella et al. find about attachment in Italy?

  • Assessed 76 babies using Strange Situation
  • 50% were secure, 36% were avoidant
  • Higher rates of avoidant babies also being found in other countries may be due to increasing numbers of mothers in work and using professional childcare
  • Suggests patterns of attachment type vary in line with cultural change but are not static
• What is one strength of research on cultural variations in attachment?

  • Most were conducted by indigenous researches who are from the same cultural background as the participants - an example of emic research e.g. Grossmann et al. in Germany and Takahashi in Japan
  • Avoids problems of cross-cultural research like language barriers and biases from national stereotypes
  • Enhances the validity of data
• How do confounding variables weaken research on cultural variations in attachment?

  • Studies conducted in different countries are usually not matched for methodology when meta-analysed
  • Sample characteristics like social background and urban/rural makeup can confound the results, showing a lack of standardisation
  • Even things like environmental characteristics could confound results (size of the room, availability of interesting toys)
  • Means the meta-analysis may not be telling us about cross-cultural differences but extraneous differences
• How is the design of the Strange Situation weak?

  • Imposed etic: assuming an idea/technique that works in one culture may work in another
  • In Britain and the US, lack of affection during reunion may be seen as an avoidant attachment whereas in Germany this could just be interpreted as independence not insecure attachment
  • Behaviours may not have different meanings in different cultural contexts, so using the same test is meaningless