cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
individualist culture and 2 example countries
they value independence and the importance of the individual.
e.g. America and UK
collectivist culture and 2 example countries
they value the group and a sense of community. The group live and work together and share tasks; belongings and childcare.
e.g. Israel and Japan
what are the 3 theories of explanations of attachment ,in relation to culture, on the scale (from most common to least)
evolutionary theory, middle ground, cultural variation
evolutionary theory
attachments are innate and therefore culture shouldn’t make a difference in the optimum attachment type (secure)
middle ground (where most people decide to settle on)
attachment doesn’t relate to child rearing practices but there’s some common elements, making secure attachment dominant in most cultures.
cultural variation
attachments are based entirely on the cultures child rearing practices and their environment, therefore attachment types will be different from one culture to another.
aim of Izjendoorn and Kroonbergs cross cultural attachment study
to assess similarities and differences in types of attachment between and within different cultural samples.
findings of Izjendoorn and Kroonbergs cross cultural attachment study
a meta-analysis was carried out on 32 studies from 8 countries that used the strange situation procedure to assess mother-child attachment.
1,990 separate strange situation classifications were used and then all studies comprised at least 35 mother-infant pairs under the age of 2.
general findings of Izjendoorn and Kroonbergs cross cultural attachment study
-typically across all countries (type B) was the most common attachment type.
-highest proportion of type A was found in Germany.
-Type C appeared higher in eastern cultures (e.g. china and Japan)
- intra-cultural (within a culture) differences were far greater than inter-cultural (between different cultures).
3 conclusions of Izjendoorn and Kroonbergs cross cultural attachment study
overall patterns were similar to Ainsworth’s original study across different cultures.
intra-cultural differences were greater than inter-cultural differences.
slight differences between western and eastern cultures in the proportions of type A and type C variations.
inter-cultural
between different cultures
intra-cultural
within a culture
an imposed etic
using a technique which is only relevant to one culture to study and draw conclusions about another.
-Ainsworth used this, so it is a criticism of his study
give one strength of Ijzendoorm and Kroonberg’s research
one strength is they were both indigenous psychologists (they were from the same cultural background as participants).
this means their research avoided problems, like researchers’ misunderstandings of the language used by participants, that usually comes from cross-cultural research.
This means that there is a better chance that researchers and participants were able to communicate successfully, leading to increased validity of data collected.
give one limitation of cross cultural research (e.g. Ijzendoorm and Kroonberg)
one limitation is the impact of co-founding variables on this research.
studies conducted in different countries don’t usually match the methodology when compared in reviews and meta-analyses (which these 2 used)
sample characteristics (e.g. social class) and environmental variables can differ between studies and lead to cofound results.
One example is in a small room with attractive toys babies appear to explore more, so due to this less visible proximity-seeking it may make a child more likely to be classified as avoidant when it’s actually just because of the room size.
therefore when looking at attachment behavior in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries, may not tell us anything about actual cross-cultural patterns of attachment.
