Cultural Variation In Attachment Flashcards
Who studied cultural variations?
Van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg
What was Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s aim?
To see whether attachment was the same across cultures
What was van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg’s method?
Conducted a meta analysis of the findings from 32 studies of the strange situation. They looked at over 2000 children in 8 countries, including western cultures and non western cultures
What were van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg’s findings?
Great Britain and Sweden had the most amount of securely attached infants
China had the least amount of Securely attached infants
West Germany and Netherlands had the most amount of insecure avoidant infants
Israel and Japan had the most amount of insecure resistant infants
What was Van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg’s conclusion?
Secure attachment is the most common attachment type in all counties. Suggesting that attachment must be innate. However due to slight variation the nature of attachment can be to some extent determined by culture
What is in issue for cross cultural research into attachment types?
Strange situation was developed in a western culture and uses western traditions and norms when conducting and analysing the research. This means that when we use this western developed tool on non western cultures it becomes unreliable as the child rearing practices are different and it may not be that a child is insecurely attached, it is just the way they have been brought up. For example the strange situation assumes that willingness to explore is a sign of secure attachment however in some cultures this is not the case. Thus it casts doubt on the strange situation being used to determine attachment type across cultures
Why is the definition of culture an issue in cross cultural research?
They were drawing conclusions about cultural differences yet they were comparing countries not cultures. For example, they compared Japan with the us but the problem with this is that within big countries like this there are many different sub cultures each of which have different child care practices. It was found that in Tokoyo there was the same attachment types as western cultures but in rural areas of Japan there were not. Thus it is oversimplified to say that all children in one particular culture will have the same attachment types as there are many sub cultures within the countries.
How does cultural research show that the strange situation is a reliable and repeatable method
Van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg found that when they used the strange situation in different countries secure attachment was the most common in all of them
This shows that the strange situation can be done over and over agin in the same way using other children and mothers. If the researchers using the strange situation find the same thing it tells us that the strange situation is a reliable way of measuring attachment types as it shows we get consistent results
