Cultural variations in attachment

• Cultural Variations of Attachment Study:

  • Conducted by Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)
  • Meta-analysis of cultural variations in attachment (32 studies) using the strange situation procedure
• Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg found that:

  • Type B was the most common attachment
  • Type A was the second most common in every country except Israel & Japan
  • Variation within cultures was 1.5x greater then variation between cultures
  • Strongest attachment's are formed with the infant's mother
  • Supports Bowlby's theory that attachment is innate & biological as secure attachment was the most common in every country
  • More insecure attachment in Germany
  • More insecure resistant in Japan
• Cultural Variations in Attachment AO3:

  • ❌ Ethnocentric Procedure - based on Western society - imposed etic on non western cultures - lacks validity
  • ❌ Unrepresentative - many different subcultures - an individual sample is unrepresentative of a particular culture ( 1 in China , 18 in US )
  • ✅ Ethical - meta-analysis meant no more children had to be put through distress
  • ❌ Cultural bias - continuity hypothesis is individualistic, in Japan insecure-resistant infants will be successful group-orientated adults
• Cultural Variations in Attachment AO3:

  • ❌ Ethnocentric Procedure
  • ❌ Unrepresentative
  • ✅ Ethical
  • ❌ Cultural Bias