Attachment - Cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
What did Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conduct?
A study looking at proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant across a range of countries to assess cultural variation
What was the procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research?
They located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation was used, yielded resuts from 1990 children and looked into 8 countries
What is meta-analysis?
When the results of the studies were combined and analysed together, weighting each study for its sample size
In the findings, what was the most common classification?
Secure attachment
In the findings, what percentage of secure attachment was in the UK?
75%
In the findings, what where the individualistic cultures rates?
Insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsworth’s original sample (under 14%)
In the findings, what percentage of secure attachment was in China?
50%
In the findings, what where the collectivist samples rates?
Insecure-resistant attachment waa above 25% in countries like Israel, China and Japan. Insecure-avoidant attachment was reduced
What did Alessandra Simonelli et al (2014) conduct an experiment in Italy on?
To see whether the proportions of babies of different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies
What did Simonelli (2014) assess?
76 babies aged 12 months using the strange situation
What did Simonelli (2014) find?
50% were secure, 36% were insecure-avoidant
What does Simonelli’s (2014) findings show?
There is a lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of secure-avoidant attachment that has been found in many studies
What does Simonelli’s (2014) findings mean?
That there are an increasing amount of mothers of very young children working longer hours and using childcare
What do Simonelli’s (2014) findings suggest?
That patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change
What did Mi Kyoung Gin et al (2012) conduct an experiment in Korea on?
To compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies
What did Kyoung Gin (2012) assess?
87 babies using strange situation
What did Kyoung Gin (2012) find?
Most of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only 1 baby was avoidant
What is the distribution of Kyoung Gin’s (2012) findings similar to?
The distribution of attachment types found in Japan
How is the distribution of Kyoung Gin’s (2012) findings similar to the attachment types in Japan be explained?
Since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similiarity might be explained in terms of child rearing style
What is the conclusion of the cultural variations in attachment?
Secure attachment seems to be the norm in most cultures but cultural practices have an influence on attachment type
What is one strength of cultural variations in attachment?
Indigenous researchers
What is the evaluation of cultural variations in attachment having indigenous researchers?
P: Studies were conducted by indigenous researchers
E: Indigenous researchers are from the same background as the participants
E: Problems such as researchers’ misunderstanding of the language can be avoided
L: enhances validity as the researchers and participants communicated successfully
What is one limitation of cultural variations in attachment?
Confounding variables
What is the evaluation of cultural variations in attachment having confounding variables?
P: Impact of confounding variables
E: Sample characteristics such as poverty and social class can confound results
E: Environmental variables such as size of the room can confound results
E: I.E less visible proximity seeking because of room size could classify the baby as avoidant
L: May not tell us much about cross-cultural patterns on attachment
What is another limitation of cultural variations in attachment?
Imposed etic
What is the evaluation of cultural variations in attachment having an imposed etic?
P: Trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context
E: Imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea that works in one cultural context will work in another
E: An example is that if a child shows a lack of affection in the UK or US, it represents an avoidant attachment
E: If a child shows a lack of affection in Germany it is represented as independence so strange situation does not apply in Germany
L: Behaviours measured by the strange situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts
