cultural variations in attachment

• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's research (1988)

  looked at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachment across countries to assess cultural variation

  carried out a meta analysis combining the findings of 32 studies from 8 different countries

  in Germany there was more insecure avoidant attachment showing that secure attachment isn't always the main attachment as in Germany the raise their children to be independent but still following their parents orders

  showed that Israeli children do not show separation anxiety as they were used to their mother leaving
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's research evaluation strengths

  the findings can be considered reliable as significantly large samples were used as nearly 2000 children were used
• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's research evaluation limitations

  can be argued to be biased as the study was deigned for Americans and applying it to another culture may not be truly representative and valid
• Takahashi (1990) 


  replicated the strange situation with 60 middle class Japanese infants and mothers, findings showed that 0% were insecure avoidant as infants became severely distressed when left alone as this situation was quite unnatural and broke cultural norms for the infants, 32% insecure resistant, 68% secure, and 90% of infants being left along had to be stopped due to excessive infant anxiety
• evaluation of Takahashi


  the research was unethical as Japanese infants are rarely separated from their primary caregivers so as they were left along it induced stress that they would not normally encounter and so the level of harm can be considered unjustifiable