Attachment: Types and cultural variations

Question 1

Outline strange situation procedure? (4 marks)

Answer 1

Procedure: Put infants in 9 x 9 room perfect for exploration. 8 episodes: test parent as secure base, stranger anxiety, separation anxiety and reunion behaviour (stranger enters room, mother leaves) all behaviour videod and infants actions closely monitored. And sorted behaviour into categories eg. contact seeking and interaction avoiding behaviour

Question 2

Explain findings of Ainsworth’s strange situation (3 types of attachment too)

Answer 2

She combined data from 106 studies but on middle class infants: Secure attachment: harmonious relationship, explorative, moderate stranger anxiety, slight separation anxiety, enthuisastic reunion. 66% of infants are this Insecure avoidant: high explore, low stranger and separation anxiety and avoid contact at reunion. 22% of kid Insecure resistant: low explore, high stranger and separation anxiety, seeks and rejects at reunion - 12%

Question 3

Give 4 evaluation points for Ainsworth’s strange situation and types of attachment.

Answer 3

1) Other type: insecure - Disorganised type D, this is characterised by a lack of consistent patterns of social behaviour. Ainsworth overlooked this
2) Observations high reliability as they were filmed and crossanalysed
3) Can be applied to real world: led people to develop guides to help ppl have strong attachments
4) Low internal validity as the child may behave differently with different parents

Question 4

Outline the procedure and findings of one study into cultural variations in attachment?

Answer 4

Van IJzendoorn: Conducted a meta-analysis of findings from 32 different studies of attachment behaviour from 8 different countries in order to see inter-cultural differences ( differences between cultures/countries) and intra-cultural differences (differences within same cultures)
Findings: Found differences to be small, Secure was most common in all countries. West Germany highest avoidant and Israel, japan and china highest resistant. Uk highest secure.

Question 5

Outline 2 research into cultural differences in attachment? NOT VAN IJZENDOORN

Answer 5

Grossman and Grossman found German infants were more likely to be insecure than secure, this is because in German culture at the time, infants and parents tend to spend time apart. 
Takahashi: studied 60 middle class japanese infants found similar rates of secure attachment as found by Ainsworth. he found that distress when being alone was so bad 90% of the studies had to be stopped early

Question 6

Give 4 evaluation points for cross-cultural differences in attachment?

Answer 6

1) Similarities may not be due to genetics, could be down to masss media which spreads parenting influenes and ideas
2) Cross cultural research was designed by an American who may see independence as insecure whereas Japanese see it as secure
3) Culture bias: The methods used only accurately show American attachment as the methods aren’t relevant to other cultures. E.g. continuity hypothesis has differing meanings per culture: America say secure attachment leads to more emotionally compoetent children and show emotion whereas this competence is shown in Japan by hiding emotions
4) Doesnt take subcultures within countries into account