cultural variation in attachment

• Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research>>>

  - Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a study to look at the proportion of secure, insecure- avoidant and insecure- resistant attachment across lots of countries to asses cultural variation

  - Also looked at the differences within the same countries – for variations within a culture
• Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research: procedure >>>

  • Located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation test was used to investigate the proportions of babies with different attachment types

  - Conducted in 8 countries – 15 were in the US

  - Results were based of 1990 kids

  - Meta analysis was used for the data of the 32 studies

  - So results were combined and analyzed together
• Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research: findings (1/2) >

  Wide variations between the proportion of attachment types in different studies

  • secure attachment was the most common In all countries

  - however the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China

  - in individualist cultures rates of insecure- resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth 's original sample- all below 14%

  - This isn't true for collectivist samples from China, Japan and Israel - rates above 25% (and rates of insecure avoidant attachments were reduced)
• Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research: finding (2/2) >>>

  • Variation between results of studies within the same country were 150% greater than those between countries
  • e.g. in the US one study only found 46% were securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%
• other studies of cultural variations: italian study (1/2) >>

  • Simonelli et al (2014) Conducted study to see whether the proportions of babies who have different attachment types still matches those of previous studies
  • assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using the strange situation test
• other studies of cultural variations an italian study (2/2) >>>

  • found 50% = secure and 36% = insecure avoidant

  - This is a lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure avoidant attachment which has been found in many studies

  - Researchers think that it's because of increase of mothers with young children working long hours and using childcare

  - ... findings suggests that patterns of attachment types are not static but in line w/ cultural change
• other studies of cultural variations :a korean study>>>

  Mi Kyoung Jin et al (2012) conducted the study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies

  - the strange situation test was used to assess 87 babies

  - Overall, the proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar in most countries - most babies were secure

  - however more were insecure-reistant than avoidant

  - this is similar to the attachment types found in Japan study ( Van IJezendoorn and Kroonenberg 1988) - might be due to the fact that Japan and Korea have similar child rearing styles.
• conclusions>>>

  - secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures – supports bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal

  - However, the research shows that cultural practices also have an influence on the attachment type.
• ao3 most studies were conducted by indigenous researchers+ cp (1/2)>>>

  • indigenous psychologists are those from the same cultural background as the participants

  - e.g. Van IJezendoorn and Kroonenberg included research by a German team (Grossmann et al 1981) and Takahashi (1986) who is Japanese.

  - this means that potential problems in cross cultural research could be avoided

  • e.g language barrier or bias - is of one's nation stereotypes of another

  - .. this increases the validity of data collected - researchers and participate are able to communicate successfully
• - ao3 most studies were conducted by indigenous researchers+ cp>>>(2/2)

  • cp// this isnt true for all cross cultural attachment research

  - Morelli and Tronick (1991) but outsiders from America when they study the child rearing and patterns of attachment in the Efe’ of Zaire

  - difficulty gathering data from participants outside of their own culture may have affected their data

  - … means data from some countries might have been affected by bias and difficulty in cross cultural communication
• ao3 imposed etic>>> (1/2)

  - impose etic of cross cultural psychology includes the idea of emic and attic ( cultural uniqueness and cross cultural universality)

  - imposed etic occurs when we impose an idea/ technique that works in one cultural context to another
• ao3 imposed etic>>>(2/2)

  • e.g research in the use of baby's responses to reuniting with the caregiver in the strange situation test

  - the UK and USA, lack of affection on reunion may indicate avoidant attachment

  - but in Germany its seen as independence rather than insecurity

  - suggests that this part of the situation test may not work in Germany

  - means that behavior is measured by a strange situation may not have the same meaning in different cultural contexts.
• ao3 counfounding variables>>

  • limitation in cross-cultural research and meta-analysis is confounding variables
  • apperent cultural differrnce might have been due to sample characteristics (e.g poverty, social class) or environmental differences (e.g room size)
  • e.g. babies might appear to explore more in a small room with attractive toys compared to a large, empty rooms
  • less proximity seeking - room size might make a babiy more likely to be classified as avoidant