Attachment - cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
How do some Israelian child rearing practices differ to the UK? What attachment style would we expect this to produce more commonly?
Communal child rearing was the method of education that prevailed
Resistant attachment type
How do some Japanese child rearing practices differ to the UK? What attachment style would we expect this to produce more commonly?
Parents rarely leave their children and the responsibility of the infant is the mother’s - they must form a close bond before anyone else
Resistant attachment type
How do some German child rearing practices differ to the UK? What attachment style would we expect this to produce more commonly?
They value independence and encourage children from an early age to do things on their own
Avoidant attachment type
What is a collectivist culture?
One that’s based on valuing the needs of a group/community over the needs of the individual - cohesion is extremely valued
(China, India)
What is an individualistic culture?
Prioritisation or emphasis of the individual over the entire group
(UK, USA)
What is a meta-analysis?
Statistical technique used in research to systematically combine and analyse results from multiple independent studies on a particular topic. Gives a quantitative summary of overall findings so researchers can draw more robust conclusions than individual studies
Procedure of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1998)
Meta-analysis of 32 studies with a sample size of 1990 infants. It covered 8 countries to compare attachment types around the world (using Strange Situation test)
Findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1998)
1) Secure attachment was most common type in all cultures examined
2) Lowest percent of secure attachment in China
Highest percent of secure attachment in Great Britain
3) Avoidant attachment more common in Germany
Avoidant attachment rare in Israel and Japan
4) Variation within cultures was 1.5x greater than variation between cultures (sub-cultures offer variation)
5) Japan and Israel (collectivist) showed higher levels of insecure-resistant attachment compared to other cultures
6) Germany (individualistic) showed higher levels of insecure-avoidant attachment compared to other cultures
Conclusions from Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1998)
Most babies worldwide exhibit secure attachment - support Bowlby’s theory of attachment that it’s innate and universal
If attachment was purely shaped by culture differences, significant variations in attachment style might be expected
Cultural variations in proportion of resistant and avoidant indicate environment does play a role in shaping attachment
What did Simonelli et al (2014) find?
76 babies - 50% secure, 36% insecure-avoidant (differs from Ainsworth’s 20-25% avoidant in 70s)
Her study lacked temporal validity due to more mothers working in modern-day compared to being more involved back then
What did Takahashi (1990) find?
60 middle class Japanese infants
0% insecure-avoidant
32% insecure-resistant
68% secure
90% of infant-alone steps had to be stopped due to excessive infant anxiety
Her study lacks population validity as there are different parenting styles in different cultures
