Cultural variations Flashcards
AO1: Cultural Variations
Van Ijzendoorn investigated cross cultural variations in attachment. The sample was 32 studies of the Strange Situation from 8 countries of around 2000 children. It is a meta-analysis of the Strange Situation. They found that secure attachment was the most common attachment type in all 8 countries. The lowest percentage of secure attachment was in china and the highest was in Britain. They found difference with insecure attachment. Insecure avoidant was the most dominant insecure attachment in western cultures, Whereas insecure resistant was the most common in collectivist cultures (except from China). There was one and a half times greater variation within cultures than between cultures. In conclusion the results show there is cultural variation as insecure attachments differently however there are some similarities as secure attachment is the most common within all countries.
What are the evaluations for cultivation variation? (3)
1) High population validity
2) Culture bias
3) Imposed Etic
AO3: Population validity
Van Ijzendoorn’s meta analysis of cultural variations into attachment has high population validity. This is because it is a meta analysis of 32 studies using a large sample of 2000 infants. Therefore it’s easier to vernalise the findings of attachment types that secure attachment is the most common across all cultures to the rest of the target pollution. This increases the external validity of the Van Ijzendoorn’s research into cultural variations.
AO3: Culture bias
Although Van Ijzebdoorn’s research into culture variations uses a large sample of people it can be criticised for culture bias as 18 out of 32 of the studies were carried out on western, indivdualistic cultures and 5 were carried out in non-western collectivist cultures. Therefore it is difficult to generalise the findings that secure attachment is the most common type across all cultures. This reducing the validity of the research into culture variations within attachment types.
AO3: Imposed etic
However Van Ijzendoorn used the Strange Situation to investigate cultural variations between attachment types so it can be criticised for Imposed Etic. It is based on American child rearing practices and ignores practices from other cultures. For example in Germany independence in infants is encorouged so a child might have an insecure avoidant attachment according to Strange Situation. However this could be desirable in Germany rather than insecure. Therefore the Strange Situation may not be appropriate to to measure attachment types when investigating cultural variations.
