cultural variation

Question 1

Name a key study for cultural variation?

Answer 1

Van Ijenzdoom and Kroonberg 1988

Question 2

what were the aims of the experiment?

Answer 2

to investigate how different attachments work in different countries
to investigate if different attachment styles were universal from culture to culture

Question 3

what was the procedure?

Answer 3

a meta analysis was conducted of Ainsworth strange experiment
only mother infant attachments were studied
Ijenzdoom and Kroonberg categorised the attachment styles in the following : (A) = avoidant (B) secure (C) insecure resistant/ambivalent
they then calculated the average of different attachment styles in each country
they excluded down syndrome infants, and infant less than 2 years

Question 4

what were the findings?

Answer 4

Secure attachment was the most common form of attachment

• the lowest level of secure attachment was found in China of 50%
• the highest level of secure attachment was found in the UK of 75%
• German social norms indicate high levels of independence so they had high levels of insecure avoidant (35%)
• Countries such as Japan are collectivist cultures so they had high levels of insecure resistant (27%)

Question 5

what are the conclusions?

Answer 5

universal characteristics underpin infant caregiver interactions
however, universality is limited
For example Grossman et al 1985 found that German parents raise independent, non clingy infants which were the norm
As opposed to Israeli infants who grew up in collectivist culture, they were used to not seeing their mother so they did not show that much anxiety, however when introduced to a stranger, they did show resistance.