3.4: Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Question 1

When did Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study take place?

Answer 1

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study took place in 1988

Question 2

The Strange Situation was designed for use in one culture (the USA - American culture) and so wasn’t what?

Answer 2

The Strange Situation:

1. Was designed for use in one culture (the USA - American culture)
2. So wasn’t a valid measure of attachments in other cultures

Question 3

What was the aim of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?

Answer 3

The aim of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study was to assess similarities and differences in the amount of type A, B and C attachment types in separate samples

Question 4

Meta-analysis

Answer 4

A meta-analysis is a summary piece of research that looks at a range of similar studies, analysing for one particular factor

Question 5

What was the procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?

Answer 5

The procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study was that they completed a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries that used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure

Question 6

The procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study was that they completed a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries that used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure.
What were studied?

Answer 6

Attachment types both:
1. Between
2. Within
cultures were studied

Question 7

The procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study was that they completed a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries that used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure.
Attachment types both between and within cultures were studied.
How many babies were studied?

Answer 7

Approximately 2,000 babies were studied

Question 8

The procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study was that they completed a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries that used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure.
Attachment types both between and within cultures were studied.
Approximately 2,000 babies were studied, all how old?

Answer 8

Approximately 2,000 babies were studied, all below 2 years old

Question 9

The procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study was that they completed a meta-analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries that used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation procedure.
Attachment types both between and within cultures were studied.
Approximately 2,000 babies were studied, all below 2 years old, as what?

Answer 9

Approximately 2,000 babies were studied, all below 2 years old, as approximately 2,000 mother-infant relationships that were categorised in terms of:
1. Type A
2. Type B
3. Type C
attachment types

Question 10

What are the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study?

Answer 10

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in:

1. All cultures
2. Every country

Question 11

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in all cultures and in every country.
It was the highest in Britain at 75% and the lowest in China at 50%.
2. What country had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children?

Answer 11

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that Germany had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children

Question 12

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in all cultures and in every country.
It was the highest in Britain at 75% and the lowest in China at 50%.
2. Germany had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children.
3. Japan had very few insecure-avoidant children, but a high proportion of what?

Answer 12

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that Japan had:
1. Very few insecure-avoidant children
,but
2. A high proportion of insecure-resistant children

Question 13

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in all cultures and in every country.
It was the highest in Britain at 75% and the lowest in China at 50%.
2. Germany had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children.
3. Japan had very few insecure-avoidant children, but a high proportion of insecure-resistant children.
4. Where was type A attachment type found more?

Answer 13

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that type A attachment type was found more in Western cultures

Question 14

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in all cultures and in every country.
It was the highest in Britain at 75% and the lowest in China at 50%.
2. Germany had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children.
3. Japan had very few insecure-avoidant children, but a high proportion of insecure-resistant children.
4. Type A attachment type was found more in Western cultures, while type C attachment type was found more where?

Answer 14

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type A attachment type was found more in Western cultures
,while
2. Type C attachment type was found more in Israel, China and Japan

Question 15

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in all cultures and in every country.
It was the highest in Britain at 75% and the lowest in China at 50%.
2. Germany had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children.
3. Japan had very few insecure-avoidant children, but a high proportion of insecure-resistant children.
4. Type A attachment type was found more in Western cultures, while type C attachment type was found more in Israel, China and Japan.
5. There was 1 and a half times more variation within cultures than between cultures.
Example

Answer 15

For example:
1. In one USA sample, there was 94% type A attachments
,while
2. In another USA sample there was only 47% type A attachments

Question 16

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in all cultures and in every country.
It was the highest in Britain at 75% and the lowest in China at 50%.
2. Germany had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children.
3. Japan had very few insecure-avoidant children, but a high proportion of insecure-resistant children.
4. Type A attachment type was found more in Western cultures, while type C attachment type was found more in Israel, China and Japan.
5. There was 1 and a half times more variation within cultures than between cultures.
For example, in one USA sample, there was 94% type A attachments, while in another USA sample there was only 47% type A attachments.
What does this mean?

Answer 16

This means that there is a lot diversity within any given culture, due to sub cultural norms being different, such as class, religion, ethnicity, ect

Question 17

The findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that:
1. Type B (secure attachment) was the most common type of attachment in all cultures and in every country.
It was the highest in Britain at 75% and the lowest in China at 50%.
2. Germany had the highest number of insecure-avoidant children.
3. Japan had very few insecure-avoidant children, but a high proportion of insecure-resistant children.
4. Type A attachment type was found more in Western cultures, while type C attachment type was found more in Israel, China and Japan.
5. There was 1 and a half times more variation within cultures than between cultures.
For example, in one USA sample, there was 94% type A attachments, while in another USA sample there was only 47% type A attachments and in one Japanese sample, there were no type A attachments, whereas a second sample found around 20% type A attachments.
This means that there is a lot diversity within any given culture, due to sub cultural norms being different, such as class, religion, ethnicity, ect.
It is therefore over-simplistic to assume what?

Answer 17

It is therefore over-simplistic to say assume that all children are brought up in exactly the same way within a country or culture

Question 18

The conclusions of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study are that the data suggests that there is a difference in the pattern of cross-cultural attachment types across cultures.
Intra-cultural differences in attachment types are often greater than inter-cultural ones.
Overall, patterns of attachment types were similar to what Ainsworth found, also increasing the reliability and validity of her study.
An important cross-cultural similarity is the predominance of type B attachment in all cultures.
What does this cultural similarity suggest?

Answer 18

This cultural similarity suggests that attachment may well be an innate process and beneficial for healthy social and emotional development

Question 19

Cross-cultural studies

Answer 19

Cross-cultural studies are a comparison of findings from people of different cultures

Question 20

Imposed etic

Answer 20

Imposed etic is using techniques that are only relevant to one culture to study and/or draw conclusions about another

Question 21

The evaluation of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study:
Strengths:
1. As intra-cultural differences were often found in different samples from the same researcher(s), it suggests that such differences were not due to methodological differences.

2. There is vital evidence to support the innate basis of attachments.
   The fact that secure attachment type is the most common across many different countries, for example China, Columbia, Germany, Israel, Japan and Norway, suggests support for the ‘secure base hypothesis,’ the ‘sensitivity hypothesis’ and the ‘innate basis’ of attachment.
3. This was a meta-analysis that collected data about a large number of children (approximately 2,000, for example).
   What does this large sample size do?

Answer 21

This large sample size:

1. Makes it possible to generalise the findings to the rest of the population
2. Also reduces the impact of anomalous results caused by poor methodology inherent in small scale studies

Question 22

The evaluation of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s study:
Weaknesses:
1. Not all cultures are represented.
Data drawn from cultures not represented in the meta-analysis, for example African and South American samples, would be required before universal conclusions could be drawn.
27 of the studies took place in individualist cultures, with only 5 in collectivist cultures and 27 of the studies were carried out in America.
This suggests that the sample may not have been truly representative.
Some of the samples were also very small.
For example, there was only one study from the UK and from Sweden.

2. The class of the infants may affect the results.
Some intra-cultural differences may be due to socio-economic differences.
For example, some USA samples were of middle-class pairings, while other USA samples used pairings from poorer socio-economic backgrounds.

3. Cross-cultural studies like these can suffer from an imposed etic, where researchers analyse findings in a biased manner in terms of their own cultural beliefs, wrongly imposing cultural-specific beliefs onto other cultures.
   For example, Ainsworth, an American, assumed that separation anxiety was an indication of secure attachment, but it may represent something else in other countries.
   Ainsworth’s Strange Situation was developed in America and so may not be suitable for use in other cultures.
   The definition of ‘secure’ and ‘insecure’ in the Strange Situation is based on American values and has been ‘imposed’ as the ‘standard’ way of understanding attachment.
   Such cultural bias is called ‘imposed etic.
4. Cultural bias.
   Rothbaum et al. (2000) argue that the Strange Situation methodology is so rooted in ‘Western culture’ that it may not even be relevant as a way of measuring attachment in other cultures.
   Takahashi’s study is a classic example.
   Takahashi (1990)’s Japanese study looked at 60 middle class infants and found that there was no evidence of insecure-avoidant attachments and the figure for insecure-resistant attachment was 32%.
   Children are rarely left alone in Japan and 90% of the infants were so distressed upon being left on their own that the study had to be stopped.
5. There are inconsistent findings.
   Grossman et al. (1991) carried out a study in Germany and in contrast to Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s findings, found that the % of insecure-avoidant attachments was higher than the % of secure attachments.
   This suggests that meta-analyses can sometimes mask the variations found within a culture, since Ijzendoorn analysed the findings of 3 separate studies in Germany.

Answer 22

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Question 23

Tronick (1992) looked at the Efe tribe in Africa, who lived in extended family groups, with infants being cared for and even breastfed by different women, but they slept with their own biological mother.
Such studies support the biological basis of attachment and the theory of monotropy proposed by Bowlby.

Answer 23

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Question 24

Grossman (1985) found that more insecure-avoidant attachments might be found in Germany, because Germans value independence and so avoidance is seen as a good thing

Answer 24

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Question 25

Ainsworth, Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg and Takahashi:

Although there may be a slight cultural differences, attachment formation is very similar in different countries

Answer 25

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Question 26

Takahashi (1990):
60 one year olds from middle class Japanese families were observed using the Strange Situation technique.
No infants were classed as insecure-avoidant.
32% of the infants were insecure-resistant and 68% of the infants were securely attached.
All of the children were very distressed when left alone.
The conclusion of Takahashi’s study is that there are cross-cultural differences in raising children, producing different reactions to the Strange Situation.
The evaluation of Takahashi’s study is that only middle class families were used, so the results may not be representative of Japanese infants as a whole.
The study also raised ethical issues, due to the children becoming so distressed when left alone.
90% of the children did not complete the whole procedure, due to extreme stress, because Japanese children aren’t exposed to stress, since they are very close with their parents, as they tended to stay with their mothers most of the time (a sign of insecure-resistant attachment).

Answer 26

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