8. Cultural Variations in Attachment (Van Ijzendoorn) Flashcards
What is meant by cultural variations
‘culture’ refers to the rules, customs and morals that bind together members of a society.
it is argues that if different cultures raise their children differently, this may affect the way the child develops and behaves.
research has been conducted to see whether different approaches to parenting in different cultures leads to different attachment types in children.
two types of cultural differences
inter-cultural differences
intra-cultural differences
what is meant by inter-cultural differences
differences between different cultures
what is meant by intra-cultural differences
differences within the same culture
who did research into cultural variations in attachment
Van Ijzendoorn (1988)
Takahashi (1990)
Research into cultural variations in attachment:
aim
Van Ijzendoorn (1988) aimed to use the Strange Situation methodology to test whether there are inter-cultural differences (differences between different cultures) as well as intra-cultural differences (differences within the same culture) in attachment types.
Research into cultural variations in attachment:
procedure
This was tested using a meta-analysis of the findings from 32 studies of attachment behaviour including over 2000 strange situation classifications in 8 different countries.
Research into cultural variations in attachment:
findings
It was found that inter-cultural differences were small.
Secure attachment was the most common AT in every country (the highest being 75% in Great Britain).
Insecure-avoidant was the next most common AT (the highest being 35% in Germany) except in Israel and Japan (countries classed as collectivist)
Insecure-resistant was the least common (the highest being 29% in Israel)
However, intra-cultural differences were 1.5 times greater than the variation between cultures.
Van Ijzendoorn’s research: how many studies were used from Western and Eastern countries?
- 27 from Western Cultures
- 5 from Easter Cultures
- most studies used in the meta-analysis were from the USA (18)
Research into cultural variations in attachment:
conclusion
They concluded that the global pattern across cultures seems to be similar to that found in the US with secure attachment as the ‘norm’, and differences within cultures are greater than differences between cultures
Takahashi (1990) Research into cultural variations
procedure: tested 60 middle class Japanese infants and their mothers in the strange situation.
findings: similar rates of secure attachment as Ainsworth in America. no evidence of insecure-avoidant, but high levels of insecure-resistant (32%). the infants were very distressed when alone, 90% cases the study was stopped at this point. showed extreme separation anxiety from caregiver.
- this could be because traditional Japanese child rearing involves the mother rarely, if ever, leaving the children.
conclusion: Japanese children show distress when left alone or with the stranger - indicators of insecure-resistant attachment.
Research into cultural variations in attachment: EVALUATION
- Strengths
P: meta-analysis shows most countries do have a similar pattern of attachment types
E: most infants form sec ur e attachment and the rest being split between insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant
E: evidence for this comes from Bee (1999)
L: supports the idea that secure attachment, as outlined by Ainsworth, is the best form of attachment for healthy social and emotional development
P: easy to replicate cross culturally
E: methodology is controlled and standardised so it can be used not only in Western cultures like America and Germany but in a wide range of other cultures as well
E: eg, same settings and methodology have been replicated in eastern cultures such as Japan
L: the methodology is a useful tool that is easy to replicate, which has demonstrated variations both within and between cultures
E: also means the findings can be easily tested for reliability
Research into cultural variations in attachment: EVALUATION
- Limitations
P: comparing cultures using the same ‘Strange Situation’ attachment behaviour interpretations may be ‘ethnocentric’
E: this means that the principle behind the SS is that the behaviour of all children in all cultures can be interpreted from the same viewpoint, but this may not be the case
E: illustrated in Germany where insecure-avoidant behaviour reflects the effects of specific encouragement towards independence in the child, and a move away from ‘clingy behaviour’
L: making cross cultural comparisons using the SS may lack validity
P: meta-analysis could be seen as biased
E: due to unequal number of studies from each country, the results may be more representative of countries than others
E: 18 studies from USA, 3 from Germany, only 1 from China
L: meta analysis used may not accurately reflect attachment types across different cultures
P: raise ethical issues
E: when the SS was replicated cross culturally, some children became extremely distressed when separated from the mother
E: Takahashis study: when infants were left alone their response was so extreme that for 90% of the infants the study was stopped at this point
L: studies didn’t protect infants from harm which goes against the ethical code of conduct
