ATT 08 - Cultural Variations

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

Refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people

Question 2

What are cultural variations?

Answer 2

• ‘Culture’ refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people
• Cultural variations then are the differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups
• In attachment research we are concerned with the differences in the proportion of children of different attachment types

Question 3

What is an etic?

Answer 3

An etic approach looks at behaviour from the outside of a given culture, and attempts to find trends that can be generalised, universal behaviours (research into attachment using Ainsworth’s SST is an example of imposed etic)

Question 4

What is an emic?

Answer 4

An emic approach functions within certain cultures, aiming to identify behaviours relative to that culture

Question 5

What was the aim of Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research?

Answer 5

• To look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variations
• Looked at differences within the same countries to get an idea of variation within a culture

Question 6

What was the procedure of Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research?

Answer 6

• The researchers located 32 studies of attachment where the Strange Situation has been used to investigate the proportions of babies with different attachment types
• These were conducted in eight countries – 15 were in the US
• Overall, the studies yielded results for 1990 children
• The data for these 32 studies was meta-analysed
• This means that the results of the studies were combined and analysed together, weight each study for its sample size

Question 7

What were the findings of Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research?

Answer 7

• There was a wide variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies
• In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification
• However, the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China
• 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% (and where rates of insecure-avoidant attachment were reduced)
• Variations between results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries
• In the US, for example, one study found only 46% securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%

Question 8

What was the conclusion of Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research?

Answer 8

• 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 clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type

Question 9

What were the other studies into cultural variations?

Answer 9

• An Italian study
• A Korean study

Question 10

Describe the Italian study into cultural variations?

Answer 10

• An Italian study Alessandra Simonelli et al. (2014) 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 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 11

Describe the Korean study into cultural variations?

Answer 11

• Mi Kyoung Jin et al. (2012) 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 Japan (van Uzendoorn and Kroonenberg 1988)
• Since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child-rearing style

Question 12

What are the strengths of cross-cultural research?

Answer 12

Most of the studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists

Question 13

Why is it a strength that most of the cross-cultural studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists?

Answer 13

• One strength of cross-cultural 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 Uzendoorn and Kroonenberg included research by a German team (Grossmann et al. 1981) and Keiko Takahashi (1986) 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 14

What are the limitations of cross-cultural research?

Answer 14

• Data from some countries may have been affected by bias
• Confounding variables have impacted findings
• Trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context

Question 15

How may have cross-cultural studies been affected by bias?

Answer 15

• For example, Gilda Morelli and Edward Tronick (1991) 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 difficulty in cross-cultural communication

Question 16

How may have confoudning variables impacted the findings?

Answer 16

• 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 17

How might cross-cultural studies impose an etic?

Answer 17

• One 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 (cultural uniqueness) and etic (cross-cultural universality)
• 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