Attachment : Cultrural Variations In Attachment Flashcards
What are van ljzendoorn & Krooneberg study?
Aim: To investigate cross-cultural variations in attachment.
Method: van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies from eight different countries that has used Ainsworth’s strange situation. In total, the results of over 1,990 infants were included in the analysis
What are van ljzendoorn & Krooneberg results?
Results: There were three key findings:
1) Secure attachment was the most common type of attachment, in all the cultures examined.
2) Japan and Israel (collectivist cultures) showed higher levels of insecure–resistant attachment in comparison to other cultures.
3) Germany (an individualistic culture) showed higher levels of insecure–avoidant attachment, in comparison to other cultures.
Conclusion of van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg
Conclusion: Since the global trend seems to reflect the US norm of secure attachment being the most common, it adds weight to the argument that secure attachment is the optimal attachment type for healthy development.
Cultural Similarities: Tronick et al. (1992) ?
The Efe tribe, located in Zaire, Africa, live in extended family groups where the infants are looked after and even breastfed by different women within the social group. However, infants tend to sleep with their own mothers at night. Although the childrearing practices differ greatly from the Western norms, the infants still showed a preference for a primary attachment figure at six months old, supporting van Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg’s main findings that secure attachment is the most common globally.
What are cultural variations?
Cultural variations in attachment are the differences in attachment patterns that exist between infants and their caregivers in different cultures.
What is an individualistic culture?
An individualistic culture is one which emphasises personal independence and achievement at the expense of group goals, resulting in a strong sense of competition E.G. More avoidant infants might be found in Germany as Germans value independence. So ‘avoidance’ is seen as a good thing(Grossman 1985)
What is collectivist culture?
A collectivist culture is one which emphasises family and work goals above individual needs and desires, there is a high degree of interdependence between people
Facts about country attachments?
• Germany had the highest number of avoidant children
• Japan had very few avoidant children but a high proportion of resistant children
• There was 1 and a half times more variation within cultures than between cultures.
• Secure attachments were the most common form in all of the cultures surveyed
- The highest proportion was found in Great Britain
Evaluation of Van I and K
Strengths
Comparison is aided by the standardised methodology. The use of the strange situation as a procedure means that a comparison can be made across cultures, and the reliability is therefore high
Weaknesses
The study was not globally representative -Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg recognised that data from less Western-oriented cultures were required to establish a more global perspective attachment classifications, pointing out that Africa, South America, and Eastern European socialist countries were not represented.
Overall findings are misleading - As a disproportionately high number of the studies reviewed were conducted in the USA (18/32), the overall findings would have been distorted by these. This means that the apparent consistency between cultures might not genuinely reflect how much attachment types vary between cultures.
Applying Strange Situation procedures and behavioural categories is ethnocentric – Cross-cultural research using the Strange Situation judges and categorises infant behaviour according to behavioural categories that were developed following observations of middle-class American infants. This means that when researchers interpret non-American infant behaviour, it is being judged against an American standard. Eg. an infant exploring the playroom by themselves would be classed as avoidant based on American standards but is valued as reflecting independence in
What is a meta analysis
A meta-analysis is where researchers combine the findings from multiple studies to draw an overall conclusion.
What was the study of takashi?
• 60 one year olds from middle class Japanese families observed in strange situation
• No infants classed as insecure avoidant.
• 32% insecure resistant 68% securely attached
• All the children were very distressed being left alone
• Conclusion: there are cross cultural differences in raising children producing different reactions to the strange situation
• Evaluation: only middle class families may not reflect Japanese infants as a whole.
• The study raised ethical issues, due to the children becoming so distressed when left alone
Problems with Takahashi study?
• 90% of children didn’t complete whole procedure due to extreme stress. Japanese children aren’t exposed to stress. Sleep and bathe with mothers.
- Ethics: research had to be stopped: lots of distress when left alone
- Generalisability
- Shows that the SS could be an imposed etic
What is ethnocentric
Tendency to view world through one’s own lens
What is imposed etic
Viewing/studying a culture from the ‘outside’
