Cultural variation in attachment Flashcards
Describe individualist cultures in terms of attachment
Individualistic cultures emphasise personal independence and achievement, placing importance on the individual
Describe collectivist cultures in terms of attachment
Collectivist cultures emphasise the importance of the group as a collective - groups live and work together sharing tasks, belongings and childrearing. They value interdependence
How many studies did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg use in their meta analysis
They aggregated the results of 32 studies where Strange Situation had been used.
How many countries and children were involved in Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s analysis
8 countries, nearly 2000 children
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg have to do with their results from each of the countries
Combine them and weight them for their sample size
What were Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg looking for in each country
Proportions of each attachment type and they also looked at differences within and between countries / cultures.
What was the most common attachment type in all countries
Secure attachment was the most common in all countries. But did vary from 75% (UK) to 50% (China).
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg find in individualist cultures
In individualist cultures, (Western) rates of I-R were similar to Ainsworth’s original, (Under 14%).
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg find in collectovist samples
In collectivist samples, China, Japan and Israel, IR was higher, around 25%. I-A was also lower here.
What did Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg find about insecure attachment
There are cultural differences in the distribution of Insecure Attachment
Give an additional finding from Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s analysis
Variations within the same country were actually 150%greater than those between countries.For example in the US one study found 46% to be securely attached, and another study found 90%.
What did Takahashi (1990) find
found high levels of resistant attachment in Japanese infants where mothers rarely leave infants in early childhood
What did Grossman and Grossman (1991) find
found that German infants tended to be classified as insecurely rather than securely attached
What did Tronick et al. (1992) do and find
studied the Efe tribe who live in extended family groups and found that even though infants were looked after by several different women they showed one primary attachment
What did Simonelli want to find
If the proportions of babies of different attachment types still matches those in previous studies
How many participants did Simonelli use, how old were they and how did he asses them
He assessed 76 babies, aged 12 months using the strange situation
What did Simonelli find
50% were secure, with 36% insecure-avoidant. (Lower rate of secure and higher of insecure than found in other studies)
How did simonelli explain his findings
He suggested it was due to increasing numbers of mothers of very young children, who were working long hours and using professional childcare
What did Jin want to find
The proportion of attachment types in korea compared to other studies
How many participants did Jin use and how did he asses them
Used the strange situation to asses 87 babies
What did Jin find
Most were secure. However, those who had formed an insecure attachment were insecure-resistant, with just 1 baby being insecure-avoidant. (Similar to Japan)
How did Jin explain his findings
Since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child rearing style
Evaluate research into cultural variations based on the strange situation working differently between countries (weakness)
The strange situation works differently in Britain and the USA compared with Germany. For example, in germany a baby’s lack of affection is interpreted as independence, not avoidance (as it is in UK/USA). So the strange situation is an example of an imposed etic. Behaviours have different meanings in different cultures so cannot be compared
Evaluate research into cultural variations based on confounding variables (weakness)
A limitation is that cross-cultural studies have confounding variables. This is because studies from different cultures are not usually matched. So variables like room size and contents may explain why some babies explore or seek proximity more than others. This means non-matched studies from different countries may not tell us much about cross-cultural patterns of attachment.
Evaluate research into cultural variations based on indigenous psychologists doing the research (strength)
One strength of cross cultural research is that most of it is done by indigenous psychologists. Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg included research by German and Japanese researchers. This avoids misunderstandings (e.g. language). This means the researchers and participants communicate successfully, so validity of the data is increased
