Culture variations in attachment:

• Who were Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg?

  Psychologists who conducted a meta-analysis study on the strange situation experiment conducted by Ainsworth.
• How many studies and countries did Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg take studies from?

  32 studies in 8 countries
• How many children did the studies yield results for?

  1990 children
• What were their findings (part 1)?

  • Secure attachment was the most common classification in all countries
  • But it ranged from 50% in China to 75% in Britain
• Which countries were used in the meta-analysis?

  1. USA
  2. UK
  3. Holland
  4. Germany
  5. Japan
  6. China
  7. Israel
  8. Sweden
• What were their findings (part 2)?

  • In individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth's original sample (all under 14%)
  • But this was not true for for the collectivist samples from China, Japan and Israel where rates were above 25% (and where rates of insecure-avoidant attachment were reduced)
  • This suggests that there were cultural differences in the distribution of insecure attachment
• What were their findings (part 3)?

  • Variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater between countries.
  • In the US, one study found 46% securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%
• Other studies: Simonella et al - procedure

  • Simonella et al (2014) assessed 76 babies aged 12 months in Italy using the Strange Situation to see whether the proportion of attachment types still matched previous studies in Italy
• Other studies: Simonella et al - findings

  • Simonella et al found that 50% were secure, with 36% insecure-avoidant. This lower rate of secure attachment may be because increasingly mothers work long hours and use more childcare. This shows that cultural changes can affect patterns of attachment.
• Other studies: Jin et al - procedure

  • Jin et al (2012) compared the attachment types of 87 Korean babies to proportions in other studies
• Other studies: Jin et al - findings

  • Jin et al found similar patterns of secure and insecure attachment to other studies
  • However within insecure categories there were differences - only one baby was avoidant. This pattern is similar to Japan and may be because both countries have similar child-rearing practices.
• Strength - indigenous researchers

  P - One strength of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's research is that most of the studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists

  E - For example, they included research by a German team (Grossmann et al) and Takahasi who is Japanese

  E - This means that many of the potential problems in cross - cultural research, such as bias because of one nation's stereotype of another or researcher's misunderstanding of the language used by participants or having difficulty communicating instructions can be avoided

  L - This means that there is an excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully - enhancing the validity of the data collected
• Counterpoint - indigenous researchera

  P - However, this has not been true of all cross-cultural attachment research

  E - For example, Morelli and Tronick were outsiders from America when they studied child-rearing and patterns of attachment in the Efe of Zaire

  E - Their data might have been affected by difficulties in gathering data from participants outside their own culture.

  L - This means that the data from some countries might have been affected by bias and difficulty in cross cultural communication.
• Limitation - confounding variables

  P - One limitation of cross - cultural research is the impact of confounding variables on findings

  E - Studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews or meta-analyses. Sample characterised such as poverty, age, social class and urban/rural make-up can confound results

  E - Environmental variables might also differ between studies and confound results. For example, the size of the room and the availability of interesting toys might mean less visible proximity-seeking because of room size might make a child more likely to be classified as avoidant

  L - This means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross cultural patterns of attachment
• Limitation - competing explanations

  P - Cross - cultural research has found very similar attachment types in different countries

  E - Bowlby's theory explains this similarity by identifying attachment as innate and universal. However, Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg suggest an alternative explanation.

  E - They suggest that global media represents a particular view of how parents and babies are meant to behave. This may override traditional cultural differences in the way children are brought up.

  L - This questions what the best way to explain universal behaviour is and the extent to which the learning theory and the extent to which Bowlby's theory can explain behaviour.