cultural variations

• cultural variations


  culture - rules, customs and morals that bind together members of a society - argued that if different cultures raise their children differently it might affect the way the child develops and behaves - research conducted to see whether different approaches to parenting in different cultures leads to different attachment types in children
• Van Ijzendoorn research into cultural variations

  aimed to use the strange situation methodology to test whether there are inter cultural differences (between different cultures) and intra cultural differences (within the same culture) - tested using meta analysis of findings from 32 studies of attachment including over 2000 strange situation classifications in 8 different countries
• Van Ijzendoorn findings


  Germany insecure avoidant = 35% (highest avoidant)

  Great Britain secure = 75% (highest secure)

  Israel insecure resistant = 29% (highest resistant)

  China avoidant = 25%, resistant = 25%, secure = 50% (lowest secure)
• Van Ijzendoorn findings


  differences between culture (inter cultural) were small - secure attachment most common in every country - insecure avoidant next most common except Israel and Japan (collectivist) and insecure resistant least common - differences within culture (intra cultural) 1.5 times greater than variation between cultures - most studies used from US (18)

  concluded global pattern across cultures seems to be similar to that found in US with secure attachments as norm and differences within cultures greater than between cultures
• Takahashi's research into cultural variations

  tested 60 middle class Japanese infants and mothers in strange situation - found similar rates of secure as Ainsworth (66%) - Japanese infants showed no evidence of avoidant but high levels of resistant attachment (32%) - Japanese infants very distressed when alone (90% of cases study was dropped at this point - children shows extreme distress on separation from caregiver - could be because traditional Japanese child rearing involves mother rarely leaving children
• CULTURAL VARIATIONS EVALUATION - strange situation easy to replicate cross culturally 


  because methodology controlled and standardised, made it possible for it to be used in Western cultures and a wide range of other cultures as well - same settings and methodology have been replicated in Eastern cultures like Japan - methodology easy to replicate and has demonstrated variations within and between cultures
• CULTURAL VARIATIONS EVALUATION - ethnocentric

  comparing cultures using same attachment behaviour interpretations ethnocentric - principle behind strange situation is behaviour of all children in all cultures can be interpreted from same point of view but not the case - e.g. illustrated Germany insecure avoidant behaviour reflects effects of encouragement towards independence in child and move away from clingy behaviour - may lack validity
• CULTURAL VARIATIONS EVALUATION - meta analysis may be seen as biased

  due to unequal numbers of studies from each country results could be seen as more representative of some countries than others - e.g. 18 studies used from US, 3 Germany, 1 from China - may not accurately reflect attachment types across different cultures
• CULTURAL VARIATIONS EVALUATION - ethical issues


  when strange situation replicated cross culturally some children became extremely distressed when separated from mother - e.g. Takahashi's research when infants left alone response was so extreme for 90% of infants study was stopped at this point - studies didn't protect infants from harm goes against ethical code of conduct