Cross-Cultural Variations in attachment

Question 1

What was the purpose of the cross cultural variations?

Answer 1

Ainsworth’s answer to ethnocentric criticisms

Question 2

What were they investigating the cross-cultural differences of?

Answer 2

Attachment, as a result of child-rearing practices differing across cultures

Question 3

Give some examples of differing child rearing practices

Answer 3

E.g.
In Germany there is emphasis on early independence in training
Japanese children are rarely separated from their mothers
Some Israeli children are raised in a Kibbutzim (collective community) where they are cared fro by a nurse, meaning multiple children in charge of a child’s care

Question 4

Who conducted a strange situation study on 60 middle class Japanese infants, with the aim of determining whether the procedure was a valid measurement of attachment in countries other than America and when?

Answer 4

Takahashi (1990)

Question 5

What did Takahashi aim to do?

Answer 5

Determine whether the Strange Situation procedure was a valid measurement of attachment in countries other than America

Question 6

Who did Takahashi experiment on?

Answer 6

middle class Japanese infants

Question 7

How many children were used in Takahashi’s experiment?

Answer 7

60

Question 8

What were the findings of Takahashi’s study?
USA Japan Difference
Secure ? ? ?
Resistant ? ? ?
Avoidant ? ? ?

Answer 8

USA Japan Difference
Secure 66% 68% +2%
Resistant 22% 32% -22%
Avoidant 12% 0% -12%

Question 9

What was the Securely attached results from Takahashi’s study?

Answer 9

68%

Question 10

What was the Insecure avoidant results from Takahashi’s study?

Answer 10

0%

Question 11

What was the Insecure Resistant results from Takahashi’s study?

Answer 11

32%

Question 12

Which attachment category was similar in japan and America?

Answer 12

Securely attached (+- 2% difference)

Question 13

Why was there an absence of insecure avoidant behaviour in Japanese children?

Answer 13

In Japanese culture, not engaging with adults is severely discouraged from a young age - this would have lead them to engage with the strange easier.

Question 14

Limitation of the Takahashi study

Answer 14

In 90% of cases the ‘baby alone’ phase had to be discontinued. Had this difference not occurred, many more babies would’ve been classified as securely attached because the presence of this distress in some infants led them to being classified as insecure resistant

Question 15

What did Takahashi conclude from his findings:

Answer 15

Whilst the number of securely attached infants was similar to the American findings, the overall results were considerably different

Question 16

What evaluation is there for Takahashi’s study?

Answer 16

Small sample size (as with Ainsworth's study)
Limited to middle class Japanese children - unreasonable to generalise findings across Japanese children

Question 17

What type of investigation did Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conduct?

Answer 17

A meta-analysis in which they compiled the results of 32 Strange Situation studies carried out in 8 countries

Question 18

How many countries were included in the meta-analysis?

Answer 18

8

Question 19

How many different studies were used in the meta-analysis?

Answer 19

32

Question 20

Who conducted the meta-analysis and when?

Answer 20

Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Question 21

What study took place in the same year as the meta-analysis? (1988)

Answer 21

Main and Cassidy (1988) - disorganized children

Question 22

Click to reveal the findings of the meta-analysis

Pick a country and discuss its results in comparison with others.

Answer 22

Country %Type A(IA) %Type B(SA) %Type C(IR) No. o
W. Germany 35 57 8 3
GBR 22 75 3 1
Netherlands 26 67 7 4
Sweden 22 74 4 1
Israel 7 64 29 2
Japan 5 68 27 2
China 25 50 25 1
US 21 65 14 18
Overall
Average 21 65 14

Question 23

What were the general trends of the results of the meta-analysis?

Answer 23

SA = similar results across all cultures

The more IA %’s, the lower the IR %‘s, and vice versa

Higher percentage of IR in Eastern Cultures (collectivist)
Higher percentage of IA in Western Cultures (Individualist)