Cultural variations

• Cultural variations - The differences between western and non-western cultures and why their attachment styles may differ
• Van Izendoorn's research

  > AIM - To investigate cross cultural variations in attachment

  > SAMPLE - 32 studies of the strange situation from 8 countries using around 2000 children

  > METHOD - Meta analysis of the strange situation
• Most common attachment types

  > Secure - UK (75%), Sweden (74%)

  > Insecure avoidant - Germany (35%), Holland (26%)

  > Insecure resistant - Israel (29%), Japan (27%)

  Least common attachment types

  > Secure - China (50%), Germany (57%)

  > Insecure avoidant - Japan (5%), Israel (7%)

  > Insecure resistant - UK (3%), Sweden (4%)
• Van Izendoorn FINDINGS

  > Most common attachment types in all countries was secure

  > Insecure resistant was the most dominant insecure type in non-western cultures

  > Insecure avoidant was most dominant in western cultures

  > One and a half times more variation within cultures then between cultures
• Van Izendoorn CONCLUSION

  > There are cultural variations in attachment as insecure types were different

  > Must be similarities due to secure attachment being most common in all cultures
• Cultural variations AO3

  :) High population validity

  > Meta-analysis of 32 strange situation studies

  > 2000 infants

  > Making it easier to generalise the findings to the target population, increasing the internal validity
• Cultural variations AO3

  :( Culture bias

  > Over half (18 out of 32) of the research studies were carried out in the USA

  > Only 5 carried out in non-western cultures

  > Difficult to generalise the findings across all cultures when explaining different attachment types
• Cultural variations AO3

  :( Imposed Etic

  > Based on american child-rearing practices and ignores other cultures

  > eg. the lack of separation anxiety indicates an insecure-avoidant attachment type, in germany this would be seen in a positive light as it shows independence

  > Therefore the strange situation may not be appropriate to measure attachment types across all cultures