8. cultural variations of attachment

Question 1

VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG’S RESEARCH

They conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant, and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation.
They also looked at the differences within the same countries to get an idea of variations within a culture.

PROCEDURE:

Answer 1

The researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation had been used to investigate the proportions of babies with different attachment types. These were conducted in 8 countries - 15 were in the US. The data for these 32 studies was meta-analysed.

Question 2

VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG’S RESEARCH

1. lowest secure
2. lowest avoidant
3. lowest resistant
4. highest secure
5. highest avoidant
6. highest resistant

Answer 2

1. China 50
2. Japan 5
3. UK 3
4. UK 74
5. Germany 35
6. Israel 29

Question 3

VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG’S RESEARCH

FINDINGS:

Answer 3

There was wide variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies.
In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification.
In individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth’s original sample (all under 14%) but this was not true for the collectivist samples from China, Japan, and Israel where rates were above 25%.

Question 4

CONCLUSIONS
Secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal, and this type is the universal norm.
However, the research also clearly shows that

Answer 4

cultural practices have an influence on attachment type.

Question 5

VAN LJZENDOORN AND KROONENBERG’S RESEARCH

An interesting finding was that variations between results of studies within the same country were

Answer 5

actually 150% greater than those between countries.

Question 6

Simonelli et al. conducted a study in Italy to see whether the proportions of babies of different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies.
The researchers assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using the Strange Situation.
They found

Answer 6

50% were secure, with 36% insecure avoidant. This is a lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure-avoidant attachment than has been found in many studies.
The researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare.
These findings suggest that patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change.

Question 7

Korean study: Jin et al. conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies. The Strange Situation was used to assess 87 babies.
The overall proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most babies being secure. However, more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only one baby was avoidant. This distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types found in

Answer 7

Japan. Since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child-rearing style.

Question 8

AO3: strength of CULTURAL VARIATIONS

use of indegeous researchers

Answer 8

One strength of the research is that most of the studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists.
Indigenous psychologists are those from the same cultural background as the participants. For example, van ljzendoorn and Kroonenberg included research by a German team and Takahashi who is Japanese. This kind of research means that many of the potential problems in cross- cultural research can be avoided, such as researchers’ misunderstandings of the language used by participants or having difficulty communicating instructions to them. Difficulties can also include bias because of one nation’s stereotypes of another.
This means there is an excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully - enhancing the validity of the data collected.

Question 9

AO3: limitation of CULTURAL VARIATIONS

counterpoint - Efe in Zaire (Morelli)

Answer 9

However, this has not been true of all cross-cultural attachment research.
For example, Morelli et al. were outsiders from America when they studied child-rearing and patterns of attachment in the Efé of Zaire.
Their data might have been affected by difficulties in gathering data from participants outside their own culture.
This means that the data from some countries might have been affected by bias and difficult in cross-cultural communication.

Question 10

AO3: limitation of CULTURAL VARIATIONS

not usually matched for methodology

Answer 10

One limitation of cross-cultural research, including meta-analyses of patterns of attachment types, is the impact of confounding variables on findings.
Studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews or meta-analyses. Sample characteristics such as poverty, social class and urban/rural make-up can confound results as can the age of participants studied in different countries. Environmental variables might also differ between studies and confound results. For example, the size of the room and the availability of interesting toys there - babies might appear to explore more in studies conducted in small rooms with attractive toys compared to large, bare rooms. Less visible proximity-seeking because of room size might make a child more likely to be classified as avoidant.
This means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross-cultural patterns of attachment.

Question 11

AO3: limitation of CULTURAL VARIATIONS

imposed etic

Answer 11

A further limitation of cross-cultural research is in trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context.
Cross-cultural psychology includes the ideas of emic and etic. Imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another. An example of this in attachment research is in the use of babies’ response to reunion with the caregiver in the Strange Situation. In Britain and the US, lack of affection on reunion may indicate an avoidant attachment. But in Germany such behaviour would be more likely interpreted as independence rather than insecurity. Therefore, that part of the Strange Situation may not work in Germany.
This means that the behaviours measured by the Strange Situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts, and comparing them across cultures is meaningless.