Attachment: Lesson 3 - Cross Cultural Variations in Attachment

Question 1

What is the Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) study?

Answer 1

• a meta-analysis KF 32 studies into attachment to see if attachment occurs in the same way across all cultures

Question 2

What were the findings of the meta analysis of cross cultural variation?

Answer 2

• secure attachment was the most common attachment style in all of the eight countries
• second most common attachment style was insecure-avoidant (except in Israel and Japan where avoidant was rare and resistant was common)
• highest percentage of secure attachments was in Great Britain
• highest percentage of insecure-avoidant attachments was in West Germany
• overall variations within cultures were 1.5 times greater than the variation between cultures

Question 3

What the findings of the meta-ana,hiss of cross cultural variations in Attachment show?

Answer 3

• similarly between cultures suggest that caregiver-infant interactions have universal characteristics and are partly instinctive
• the variations between cultures show that the cultural differences in child rearing practices also play an important role in attachment styles
• The variations within cultures indicate that sub-cultural differences, such as social class, play an important role in an infant’s attachment style

Question 4

Evaluation if cultural variation in attachment (+) (meta-analysis)

Answer 4

+ This study is a meta-analysis,which includes a very large sample. This increases the validity of the findings

Question 5

Evaluation of cultural variation in attachment (validity in other cultures) (-)

Answer 5

• The strange situation methodology was developed in the United States and it may not be valid in other cultures
• The term imposed etic is when a technique that is developed in one culture is imposed on another
• For instance, Ainsworth assumed that a willingness to explore means a child is securely attached but this may not be the case in other cultures

Question 6

Evaluation of cultural variation in attachment (Israel kibbutz) (-)

Answer 6

• The infants from Israel in this studylived on a Kibbutz(closed community) and did not come into contact with strangers
• This could be the reason why these children showed severe distress when confronted with strangers and so were classed as resistant