A03

• One problem with the study is that 27 of the studies were carried out on western countries and only 5 on non – western countries which may not be truly representative of these countries.
• A strength of the meta-analysis is that there was a large sample e.g. 2000 babies and their primary attachment figures were measured. This increases internal validity as likelihood of anomalous results is reduced.
• Another problem is that the study is culturally biased because Ainsworth’s measure of secure and insecure attachment reflects her own society’s values and will not be an accurate measure of behaviour in other countries. For example, in Japan babies rarely leave their mother and so will be much more distressed in the strange situation and then appear to have insecure attachment but may not be true according to Japanese cultural values. This is known as an imposed etic when behaviour is studied from outside the culture.