cultural variations

• as attachment is innate, due to genetics, it is universal meaning experienced by infants in all cultures
• cross cultural variations

  ways that different groups of people vary, in terms of their social practices which affect development and behaviour
• individualist countries

  people view themselves as individuals and emphasise the need of individuals
• similarities across cultures

  • develop attachments to one pcg (tronick et al)
  • fox's kibbutz - maternal sensitivity is apparent
  • children use adult as a secure base to explore
• collectivist countries

  people view themselves as members of groups and consider the nedds of the group
• collectivist cultures may make multiple attachments, as they are used to having many carers
• van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg (1988)

  meta-analysis combining findings of 32 strange situation studies from across the world, based on observation of over 2000 children
• meta-analysis

  researcher looks at findings from a number of different studies in order to reach general conclusion about a particular hypothesis
• inter variations

  between countries
• intra variations

  within the same country
• highest % avoidant

  Germany - 35.3%

  this shows that individualist cultures are more avoidant (western)
• highest % resistant

  Israel and Japan - 28.8% and 27.1%

  this shows that collectivist cultures are more resistant (eastern)
• 8 countries with 32 studies
• global pattern across cultures appears to be similar to USA

  • secure attachment is the most common across all cultures (the 'norm')
  • supports the idea that secure attachment is ideal for healthy social and emotional development
  • attachment is therefore innate and a biological process, which relates to bowlby evolutionary theory
• van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg (1988)findings


  • secure most common type of attachment
  • highest avoidant - germany 35.3%
  • highest resistant - israel 28.8%, japan 27.1%
• insecure attachments vary across different cultures

  • high levels of insecure avoidant in individualist cultures
  • high levels of insecure resistant in collectivist cultures
  • suggests the type of attachment may be influenced by culture or the assessment tool may be biased (imposed etic)
• high levels of intravariation

  • 1.5 x greater variation within a culture than between cultures
  • tokyo sample was more similar to two US samples (new york) than the other japan sample
  • israeli city was closer to US sample than israeli kibbutzim sample
  • there can be a large difference between rural and urban environments, meaning we should be cautious when assuming an individual sample is representative of a particular culture
• Jin 2012 Korea

  • similar levels of distribution of attachment in japan and korea
  • both countries had high levels of insecure resistant babies and low levels of insecure avoidant
  • as they have similar rearing styles, it can be concluded that results support that rearing styles affect attachment types
• meta-analysis is ethically sound

  no new data collection (analysis of secondary data), means that no more children are put through potentially traumatic procedure
• applications that help understand child rearing practices in different cultures

  • first large scale comparative analysis of attachment studies in different countries
  • understand how child rearing affects attachment type
• used research from indigenous researchers which enhances the validity of research
• may not be truly representative

  • china had 1 study
  • USA had 18 studies

  means may not generalise to country at large
• the use of the strange situation

  • as the procedure is ethnocentric, developed using american norms, it may only be applicable to western children
  • using to assess attachment of non-western children could arguable be inappropriate as doesn't account for culturally specific elements
  • when used on non-western cultures, it is imposed etic
• researchers would classify more germans as resistant, but they are just distant as a culture
• secure was globally preffered whihc could suggest it has a biological basis
• differences in cultures rearing styles

  • german - encourages non-clingy behaviour, so children are classified as avoidal
  • japan - mothers spend significant time with infants, explaining extreme resistant reactions to seperation