Cultural Variations in attachment

• What was the aim of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's research into cultural variations in attachment

  • to investigate cross cultural variations in attachment
  • i.e the proportions of secure, insecure resistant and insecure avoidant
• Briefly describe the procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's study

  • Meta-analysis
  • Involved 32 studies from 8 different countries using Ainsworth's strange situation
  • Results of over 1990 infants
• Outline the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's study

  • secure attachment was most common
  • insecure-resistant was least common
  • collectivist cultures showed higher levels of insecure-resistant
  • insecure-avoidant was most common in Germany and least common in Japan
  • Variation within cultures was 150% greater than between cultures
• Describe procedure and findings of Simonelli's study

  Procedure:

  • Assessed 76 12-month old babies using the strange situation
  • To investigate whether proportions of attachment styles match that of previous studys
  • Findings:
  • 50% secure 36% avoidant- lower than previous studies
  • suggested to be because of the increasing number of mothers working long hours and using daycare
• What are some general conclusions that we can draw from these studies

  • Secure attachment is the norm
  • Cultural changes can make dramatic differences in the patterns of attachment
• Describe the findings of the Korean study by Mi Kyoung Jin

  • overall proportion of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries
  • However most of the insecurely attached were resistant with only 1 being insecure-avoidant
  • Distribution is similar to distribution in Japan as child-rearing styles are similar
• Describe a strength of these studies

  Indigenous researchers ( people from the same cultural background as ppts)

  -Potential problems in cross cultural research can be avoided

  e.g misunderstanding language/ difficulty communicating instructions and bias because of stereotypes

  This means researchers and ppts communicated successfully enhancing validity of data
• Describe a limitation of these studies

  Culture bias/ imposed etic

  • imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another
  • The strange situation was created by an American so is influenced by American culture and assumptions
  • E.g a lack of separation anxiety in Germany could be interpreted as a sign of independence whereas the strange situation may label it as insecure
  • Infants are not being measured by the standards of their own culture so may be incorrectly categorised