Attachment- Cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
Define culture
-Refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people
What are cultural variations?
-Differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups
Give some traits of collectivist cultures
-Social rules focus on promoting selflessness
-Working as a group
-Doing what is best for society
-Families and communities have a central role
Give some traits of individualistic cultures
-Uniqueness
-Autonomy
-Independence
-Self sufficiency
Who carried out a study to find out more about cultural variations in attachment?
-Van Ijzendorrn and Kroonenberg
When was this study carried out?
-1988
What were the aims of the study?
-To investigate whether they could find evidence that intercultural differences exist
-To investigate whether they could find intra-cultural differences exist
-To look at proportions of secure,insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries
What do cultural differences mean
Differences between countries/cultures
What do intra-culture differences mean
Differences within cultures
What is a meta-analysis?
When a researcher looks at the findings from several different studies and produces a statistic to represent the overall effect
What was the procedure?
-Conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies of attachment
-Using the strange situation they looked at the proportion of the 3 attachment types in 8 different countries
-18 of these studies were in the US
-A total of 1990 children and their mothers were involved in the studies
What were the findings for Germany?
-Low percentage of securely attached children
-35% were insecure avoidant
-57% were securely attached (in comparison to 65% in the US)
Why may this be (Germany)?
-German culture involves keeping some interpersonal space between adults and children
-Infants do not engage in proximity-seeking behaviour which makes them appear insecurely attached
What were the findings in Israel?
-People in Israel live in kibbutzim (communal living)
-Typically brought up my a non family member although they do see their family daily
-They became very upest
-1/2 were classified as anxious/resistant
-64% appeared to be securely attached
What was the aim of Simonella’s (2014) Italian study?
-To see if the proportions of secure and insecure attachments were still the same as previous results
What was the procedure of Simonellas’s study?
-76 12-month-olds were assessed using the SS
What were the results of Simonella’s study?
-50% were secure
-36% were insecure avoidant