Cultural variations

Question 1

Van Ijzendoom and Kroonenberg

Answer 1

• carried out a meta analysis of 8 different countries
  Aim: * to see the properties of secure and insecure attachments across a range of countries
• meta analysis of 32 studies where the strange situation had been used
• conducted in 8 countries
• 15 were in the USA
• 1900 children

Question 2

Findings

Answer 2

• secure attachments were the most common form in all cultures assessed
• Lowest proportion of secure found in China, with most common in Britain and Sweden
• insecure resistant - overall least common type across all cultures, with highest in Isreal
• insecure avoidant- more common in Germany
• more variation within countries than between different countries - shows how all children are not brought up in the same way in a particular country/culture

Question 3

Additional research into cultural variations

Answer 3

Mi Kyoung Jin (2012)
* Korean study
* used strange situation to assess 87 babies
* most babies were classified as secure and the results were overall similar to most other countries, particularly to Japan
* may be explained by the fact that Japan and Korea have similar child rearing styles

Question 4

Conclusion

Answer 4

• differences between cultures in attachment types may be due to differences in values for collectivist and individualist cultures

Question 5

Collectivist culture

Answer 5

• family and community needs are more important than individual needs
• rules promote stability, order, obedience
• working with others is the norm
• e.g. Japan, China

Question 6

Individualistic cultures

Answer 6

• promotes individual goals and achievement
• individuals rights are seen as important
• relying on being dependent on others is shameful
• e.g. Germany, USA

Question 7

Evaluation

Answer 7

- Inaccuracy of meta analysis
+ High population validity
- Bias research (Imposed etic)
- Lack of internal validity
- Not representative of all cultures

Question 8

- Inaccuracy of meta analysis

Answer 8

• research study uses meta-analysis- so it compares the findings of a number of studies
• methodological flaw of this is that the findings from Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research will be subject to any methodological problems of the original research
• this lowers the internal validity of the study as findings may be prone to errors and thus not be an accurate measure of what it has intended to measure

Question 9

+ High population validity

Answer 9

• the meta analysis is that it consists of a large sample size because it combines results of 32 studies and uses almost 2000 infants
• means that Van Ijzendoorn’s research is high in population validity as it is likely to be representative of the wider population

Question 10

- Bias research (Imposed etic)

Answer 10

• the meta analysis was biased
• study used the strange situation methodology that was developed by Ainsworth
• this was developed in a western country (USA), based on western theories
• a problem with this is that the strange situation method cannot be applied to other cultures becauese of conflicting values - imposed etic
• this reduces the validity of the findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s results

Question 11

- Lack of internal validity

Answer 11

• critics argue that strange situation doesnt accurately measure attachment
• strange situation method identifies stranger and seperation anxiety, not types of attachments
• this decreases the internal validity of the findings

Question 12

- Not representative of all cultures

Answer 12

• the research is not representative of all cultures
• the study collects data across 8 different countries
• however,critics argue that within any country there are many different cultures each with different child rearing practices
• this means that research is not useful in representing attachments across different cultures