cultural variations

• Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg's study used a very large sample of 1990 which increases the internal validity of the findings as it reduces the impact of anomalous results.

  This also makes it easier to draw conclusions and patterns regarding attachment types within countries and between different countries as well.
• However, one problem is that many studies used in this meta-analysis were not entirely representative of each culture. For example, only 36 infants were used in the Chinese study, which is a small sample size for such a populated country.

  Furthermore, the study was not globally representative as African, South American and Eastern European countries were not represented.

  This means that the apparent consistency between cultures might not genuinely reflect how much attachment types vary between cultures.
• This study claimed to study cultural variation, however, the comparisons were between countries not cultures. This is a problem because there are many different cultures with different child-rearing practices within a country and so cultural characteristics can affect caregiving styles and also patterns of attachment.
• For example, an analysis by Van Ijzendoorn & Sagi (2001) found that distributions of attachment type in Tokyo (an urban setting) were similar to the Western studies, whereas a more rural sample had an over-representation of insecure-resistant individuals.

  This means that studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross-cultural patterns of attachments.
• The study uses the Strange Situation and Ainsworth's classification of attachment styles which is an example of imposed etic as this classification reflects the Western understanding of the concept of attachment.

  For example, in Germany, insecure attachment behaviour might be seen more as independence rather than avoidance and therefore it is not a sign of insecurity within the cultural context.

  This means that the behaviours measured by the Strange Situation may not have the same meaning in different cultural contexts and comparing them across cultures is meaningless.