Cultural variations in attachment

Question 1

Key study of cultural variations: van IJzendoorn &… aim?

Answer 1

van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachment across a range of countries. They also looked at the differences within the same country to look at the variations within a culture

Question 2

IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s Procedure

Answer 2

The researchers located 32 studies where the Strange Situations had been used to investigate the proportions of infants with different attachment types. These 32 studies were conducted in 8 different countries; 15 were in the USA. Overall, the studies yielded for 1990 children. The results for these 32 studies were meta-analysed.

Question 3

IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s Findings

Answer 3

Wide variation between the proportion of attachment types in different studies. In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification.However the results varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China. Insecure-resistant was overall the least common type. Insecure-avoidant attachments were observed most commonly in Germany and least commonly in Japan. Results of studies within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries.

Question 4

AO3- Large samples

Answer 4

A strength of combining the results of attachment studies carried out in diff countries is that you end up with a very large sample. E.g in the IJzendoorn meta-analysis there was a total of nearly 2000 babies and their primary attachment figures. The overall large sample size is a strength as it increases internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results caused by bad methodology or very unusual participants.

Question 5

AO3- samples tend to be unrep of culture

Answer 5

Claimed to study cultural variation whereas , in fact, the comparisons were between countries not cultures. Within a country there are many different cultures each with different child-rearing practices. E.g one sample might over-represent people living in poverty, the stress of which might affect caregiving and hence patterns of attachment.

Question 6

AO3- alternative explanation for cultural similarity

Answer 6

Bowlby’s explanation for cultural similarities is that they are due to the fact that attachment is innate and universal and thus produces the same kind of behaviours all over the world. IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg proposed an alternative possibility. They suggest that small cross-cultural differences may reflect the effects of mass media, in which a large number of books and TV programmes ‘that advocate similar notions of parenting are disseminated across countries’.