Attachment: Van Ijzendoorn - Cultural Variations Of Types Of Attachment Flashcards
What was the Aim of Van Ijzendoorn’s cultural variations?
To investigate cross cultural variations in attachment
What was the sample of Van Ijzendoorn’s cultural variations?
32 studies of the Strange Situation from from 8 countries using 2000 children
AO3 - How can we evaluate the sample used in Van Ijzendoorn’s research?
- high population validity
How many children did cultural variations use?
2000
How many countries did the analysis of the strange situation in cultural variations use?
8 countries
Cultural variations in attachment in 32 studies of what psychological study?
Strange situation
What was Van Ijzendoorn’s method?
Meta analysis of the strange situation (controlled obs)
What is a meta- analysis?
Where a researcher will gather results and findings from several pieces of research that already exist and compare findings to develop overall conclusions about behaviour, in this case - attachment.
FIndings: Which was the most common attachment type in all cultures?
Secure
Which insecure attachment type was most dominant in western cultures?
Insecure avoidant
Which insecure attachment type was most dominant in non-western cultures?
Insecure resistant
What was the most significant finding?
there was 1.5x (150%) greater variation within cultures than between cultures.
What did Van Ijzendoorn conclude?
That there are cultural variations in attachment with differences between insecure attachment types, however there are still some similarities between attachments cross culturally as secure attachment was the most common.
AO3 - Van Izjendoorn’s sample selection can be praised. How?
It has high population validity
AO3 - Why does Van Ijzendoorn’s research have high population validity?
Because it was a meta analysis of 32 strange situation studies, using a LARGE sample of over 2000 infants from 8 countries.
AO3 - Why is Van Ijzendoorn’s research having high population validity a strength?
This means that it is easier to generalise the findings that secure attachment is the most common attachment type in all cultures, to the rest of the target population.
AO3 - If Van Izjendoorn’s research can be praised for high population validity, what does this mean for validity?
It increases the external validity of the research into cultural variations in attachment.
AO3 - Although Van Izjendoorn’s research can be praised for high population validity, why can the sample be criticised?
For being culture bias.
AO3 - Why is the research into cultural variations in attachment criticised for being culture bias?
Because over half of the studies (18/32) were carried out in the USA (individualistic western culture) and only 5 were carried out in non-western collectivist cultures.
AO3 - If research into cultural variations in attachment is culture bias, why is that a problem?
It means that it is difficult to generalise the findings that secure attachments are the most common across all cultures when explaining different types of attachment.
AO3 - If research into cultural variations in attachment is criticised for being culture bias, how does that affect the validity?
It lowers the external validity of the research into cultural variations in attachment.
AO3 - Research into cultural variations in attachment types has been criticised for imposed etic. Define what is meant by Imposed Etic.
When a researcher creates a tool in one culture e.g. western culture to measure a certain behaviour and assumes that the tool can be used universally across all cultures.
AO3 - Why can research into cultural variations in attachment be criticised for imposed etic?
uses the strange situation tool created by Ainsworth in the USA (western culture) - so it is based on American child rearing practices and ignores practices in other cultures (that aren’t American).
AO3 - What behaviour is encouraged/ seen as desirable in Germany? What attachment type might they show in the SS?
Independence is encouraged/seen as desirable in infants, therefore these infants may show insecure avoidant attachment behaviour during the strange situation.
