Attachment: The Strange Situation (cross cultural variations)

Question 1

Who did a meta-analysis of studies of the Strange Situation in different countries?? (and when?)

Answer 1

Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)

Question 2

Give an example of a country with a collectivist culture and give one characteristic of this!

Answer 2

Non-western countries (Japan)
Emphasis on group effort & cooperation

Question 3

Give an example of a country with an individualistic culture and give one characteristic of this!

Answer 3

Western countries (UK)
Emphasis on personal achievement

Question 4

What did Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) find to be the overall attachment type??

Answer 4

Secure

Question 5

What were the 2 countries with the lowest % of insecure-avoidant attachments??

Answer 5

Israel & Japan

Question 6

What were the 2 countries with the lowest % of insecure-resistant attachments??

Answer 6

Great Britain & Sweden

Question 7

What is a reason for countries having different percentages of attachment types?? (give 2 examples)

Answer 7

The difference in child rearing practices

Japan -> Babies are rarely separate from their mother so had more resistant behaviour when mom left

Israel -> Not exposed to strangers so more confrontation when stranger is present

Question 8

What are the 3 evaluation points for the cross cultural differences of the Strange Situation??

Answer 8

• Large sample size
• More studies from individualistic cultures
• Takahashi (1990)

Question 9

What did Takahashi (1990) do??

Answer 9

The Strange Situation in Japan
- 60 middle class Japanese infants
- 0% insecure-avoidant
- 68% secure
- 32% insecure-resistant

Question 10

Does Takahashi (1990) support or counteract the cross cultural differences study for the Strange Situation??

Answer 10

Both!
- It had the same percentage of secure infants
- It had different percentages of the other 2 attachment types