2 ainsworth follow ons Flashcards
What was the aim of Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?
To assess whether within separate samples there was a pattern in the distribution of different attachment types and to assess the extent of inter and intra cultural differences in attachment types in different samples.
What was Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s procedure?
A meta analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries that used the stranger situation procedure to assess child-mother attachments and which classified attachments as either type A,B or C
1,9990 separate strange situation classifications were used. All studies comprised of at least 35 mother-infant pairs with infants below 2 years old.
What was Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s findings?
Overall attachment was 21% type A, 67% type B and 12% type C
In samples from all countries except Germany the modal attachment type was type B
The highest proportion of type A attachment was found in Germany
Intra cultural differences were often greater than inter cultural differences
Type A attachment found more in western cultures while type C attachment was found more in Israel, China and Japan
What were the conclusions from Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?
The data suggests there is a difference in the pattern of cross-cultural attachment types across cultures
Intra-cultural differences often greater than inter cultural ones
Overall patterns of attachment - similar to what Ainsworth found
Predominance of type B in all cultures
What does Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research link with?
Harlow and the monkeys
Bowlby’s MDH and continuity theory
What are some weaknesses of Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?
Data drawn from cultures not represented in the meta-analysis e.g. south America and Africa - could be required before universal conclusions can be drawn Some intra-cultural differences may be due to socio-economic differences for instance some USA samples were middle class and some were working class
Why is imposed etic a weakness?
Common in cross-cultural studies this is where researchers use techniques that are only relevant to their culture to study and draw conclusions about another. - so the researchers may have analysed the findings in a biased way, reflecting their own cultural beliefs and wrongly imposing these on other cultures
What is a strength of Van Ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?
Since intra-cultural differences were often found in different samples from the same researcher, it suggests that the differences were not due to methodological differences
What was the aim of McMahon-True’s research?
To assess whether infant attachment types are different in a culture that raises infants using natural parenting methods and whether attachment security was related to the quality of mother infant communications
What was McMahon-True’s procedure?
42 mothers and infant pairs from rural villages were used as participants, with infants ranging in age from 10 months to 12.5 months at first assessment
The strange situation testing method was used to assess attachment styles and the results were compared to those from 4 north American samples with a total of 306 mother-infant pairs tested
What were McMahon-True’s findings?
Dogon - 0% type A, 67% type B, 8% type C, 25% type D
North American - 23% type A, 55% type B, 8% type C, 15% type D
Many Dogan children had their grandmothers as principal carer during the day but attachment classifications were unaffected by the type of primary caregiver as mothers remained closely involved (regular breastfeeding and co-sleeping during night
Positive correlation found between maternal sensitivity and infant security ratings and between mother infant communications and infant security ratings.
What were the conclusions of Mcmahon- true’s study?
Children raised by natural child-rearing practices have higher levels of secure attachment and no insecure-avoidant attachments (this is explained by the incompatibility of Dogan child-rearing practices with western cultural child-rearing practices associated with insecure-avoidant styles. In Dogan culture there is no maternal rejection of attachment, intrusion or lack of physical contact
Naturally parented children have greater attachment security and an absence of insecure- avoidant attachment, when compared to children of western cultures
What is the Kyoung research that Mcmahon-True’s research links with?
Used the strange situation to compare 87 Korean families with 113 American families - there were notable differences, the Korean infants did not stay close to their mothers and when Korean mothers returned they were more likely to play with their infants. There were however a similar proportion of securely attached children in both cultures, suggesting that different child-rearing practices can lead to secure attachments
What is the Grossman and Grossman research that Mcmahon-True’s research links with?
Found that German infants tended to be classified as insecurely attached. This may be due to different child rearing practices, as German culture requires distance between parents and children to encourage independence from an early age. This indicates that there are cross-cultural variations in attachment
What is the Malin research that Mcmahon-True’s research links with?
Found that aboriginal infants in Australia are discouraged from exploring by threats and distractions and so tend not to use their mothers as a safe base to explore, staying close to her at all times. This leads to infants being incorrectly labelled as insecurely attached and often being put into care. This is evidence of the imposed etic
