cultural variations in attachment

• P: according to bowlby's theory of attachment the reason for universal similarities in how attachments form is because attachment is an innate mechanism, unmodified by culture

  E: van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg carried out a meta analysis of 32 studies and concluded that at least some cultural similarities might be explained by the effects of mass media, which spread ideas about parenting so as a result children all over the world are exposed to similar influences
• link for similarities due to global culture

  L: this means that cultural similarities may not be due to innate biological influences but are because of our increasingly global culture
• P: an issue with the conclusions drawn by van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg is that they actually were not comparing cultures but countries

  E: they compared japan with the US. within each country there are many different subcultures, each of which may have different childcare practices. one study in tokyo found similar distributions of attachment types to western studies, whereas a more rural sample found an over-representation of insecure-resistant individuals. Ijzendoorn and kroonenberg found more variation within cultures than between cultures
• link for countries rather than cultures

  L: this suggests that great caution needs to be exercised when using the term 'cultural variations' and especially when assessing whether an individual sample is representative of a particular culture
• P: a particular issue for research conducted in different countries is the 'tools' that are used and whether they are valid

  E: observational methods such as the strange situation are related to the cultural assumptions of the 'designer'. it's assumed that willingness to explore is a sign of secure attachment. In some cultures this is not the case. in traditional japanese culture, dependence rather than independence would be the sign of secure attachment. japanese children may appear to be insecurely attached according to western criteria, but are securely attached by japanese standards.
• link for cross-cultural research

  L: this means that research using the strange situation may lack validity in other cultures