CC AO3

• What is a strength(strange situation)

  -All studies assessed used the Strange Situation as a way of classifying attachment

  -Comparisons made are therefore using a standardised procedure

  -This means there is high reliability to the findings of Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg
• What is a weakness?(sagi)

  -Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg compared countries and not cultures

  -Within each country are many different cultural variations

  -Van Ijzendoorn & Sagi (2001) found that attachment within Japan varied with Tokyo having similar attachment styles to those of Western countries, whilst more rural settings had larger numbers of insecure-resistant attached infants
• Why is this a weakness?

  -This suggests that the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) might not be due to cultural variations

  -More care is needed to assess whether a sample is representative of a culture rather than a country
• What is another weakness? (dogon culture)

  -McMahon-True (2001) looked at attachment in the Dogon culture where many children are cared for by their Grandmothers in a day

  -found positive correlations between maternal sensitivity and infant security ratings and quality of infant mother communications

  -no instances of avoidant attachments were seen
• Therefore..

  -it is suggested that this is due to differences in child rearing patterns and that the strange situation is a tool best used to measure western attachment types
• What is another weakness? (confounding variables)

  -There are likely to be many confounding variables by carrying out a meta-analysis across different cultures

  -Different countries may have performed the Strange Situation with a varied methodology

  -confounding variables include age ,social economic status (poverty or wealth),social class ,urban or rural living
• Another criticism is that the study may involve an imposed etic.

  -The Strange Situation assumes that behaviours like exploration and reunion response have the same meanings across cultures.-In some cultures, such as collectivist societies, independence is not encouraged, and children may be classified as insecure even though they are securely attached within their cultural context.-This suggests that cross-cultural comparisons may be flawed due to a Western-centric interpretation of attachment behaviours.