CULTURAL VARIATIONS

Cards (8)

  • What did van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg do?
    Meta analysis of proportions of 3 attachment types across a range of countries and differences within countries to see variations within a culture.
    found 32 studies of attachment that used the Strange situation (15 were US)
  • what were the findings of van IJzendoorn and Kroonenbergs meta analysis?
    secure attachment was the most common classification in all countries. ranged from 50% in China to 75% in Britain
    individualist cultures rates of insecure resistant were similar to Ainsworth original sample (all under 14%) not true for collectivist samples where rates were about 25%
    differences within cultures were 1.5x bigger than between cultures
  • what is an individualistic culture?
    one which emphasises personal independence and achievement eg UK, USA and Germany
  • what is a collectivist culture?
    one which emphasises the importance of family and shares goals about individual needs and desires eg China, Japan and Israel
  • What were the results of babies tested in Italy?
    50% were secure, 36% insecure avoidant.
    lower rate of secure may be because mothers work long hours and use more childcare. Shows cultural changed affect patterns of attachment
  • what were the results of babies in Korea?
    found similar patterns of secure and insecure attachment to other studies. however within insecure categories there were differences. only one baby (out of 87) was avoidant. similar pattern to Japan, may be because both countries have similar child rearing practices
  • strengths of the studies
    use of indigenous researchers (from same cultural background as participants) aids communication between Ps and researchers, prevents misunderstanding. excellent chance that researchers and Ps communicated successfully, increases validity
    Meta-Analysis increases generalisability
  • weaknesses of the studies
    confounding variables - different countries may not be matched for sample characteristics, environmental variables also differ. means studies may actually tell us little about the cultural differences
    imposing a test designed in one culture - the strange situation is meaningless in different cultural contexts, was designed in the US where lack of affection at reunion represents insecure but in Germany is would be sign of independence
    Secondary data for meta analysis