cultural variations in attachment

Question 1

collectivist vs individualist

Answer 1

collectivist - emphasises family and work goals above individual needs and desires

individualist - emphasises personal independence and achievement at the expense of group goals

Question 2

van IJzendoorn and kroonenberg research

Answer 2

aim -
- to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation
- also looked at variations within a culture

procedure -
- 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been used, conducted in 8 countries
- overall studied results for 1990 children, data was meta-analysed

findings -
- in all countries, secure attachment was the most common, however the proportion varied from 75% in britain to 50% in china
- for insecure-resistant lowest was 3% in England and highest was 29% in israel
- for insecure-avoidant lowest was 5% in japan and highest was 36% in germany
- in individualist cultures, rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to ainsworth’s original sample (all under 14%)
- however in collectivist samples from china, japan and israel where rates were above 25%
- variations between results within the same countries was 150% greater than between countries
- for example in the US, one study found only 46% securely attached in comparison to a study that found 90%

Question 3

italian study - simonelli et al

Answer 3

aim - to see whether findings matched those of other studies

procedure - assessed 76 1 year olds using the strange situation

findings -
- 50% secure, 36% insecure-avoidant
- lower rate of secure and higher rate of insecure-avoidant than what was previously found
- researchers suggested that this is because increasing numbers of mothers with young children work long hours and use professional childcare

conclusion - the findings show that patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change

Question 4

korean study - jin et al

Answer 4

aim - to compared findings in korea to other findings

procedure - strange situation used to study 87 babies

findings -
- overall proportions for insecure and secure babies were similar to other countries, with most babies being secure
- however, most of those classified as insecure were resistant, with only one baby classified as avoidant
- this is similar to what was found in japan
- japan and korea have quite similar child-rearing styles, which could explain these similarities

Question 5

overall conclusions

Answer 5

• secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting bowlby’s ideas that attachment is innate and universal
• however the research also shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment types

Question 6

evaluation - indigenous researchers

Answer 6

• most studies conducted by indigenous psychologists, meaning they are from the same cultural background as the participants
• any potential problems in cross-cultural research can be avoided, such as language misunderstandings
• researchers and participants likely communicated successfully
• increases validity

Question 7

evaluation - confounding variables

Answer 7

• limitation is that confounding variables will affect findings
• studies in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when compared in meta-analyses
• things such as social class, poverty etc can confound results
• looking at attachment in non-matched studies in different countries may not tell us much about cross-cultural patterns

Question 8

evaluation - imposed etic

Answer 8

• limitation in trying to impose a test designed for one context into a different context
• cross-cultural psychology includes emic (cultural uniqueness) and etic (cross-cultural universality)
• imposed etic occurs when we impose an idea that works in one cultural context into another
• for example, the use of the babies’ response to reunion with the caregiver, as in britain and the usa, lack of affection may indicate an avoidant attachment, but in places like germany it may be analysed as independence rather than insecurity, so this part may not work
• behaviours measured by strange situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts, so comparing across cultures is therefore meaningless
• ethnocentric conclusions, children in germany not bought up same as elsewhere
• making judgements about another culture based on our own perceptions of what is normal

Question 9

evaluation - sample

Answer 9

positive - very large so easier to generalise

negative - more participants from USA, over representation of some cultures

Question 10

evaluation - too simplistic

Answer 10

• assumption that one country equates to one culture is too simplistic
• there are many sub-cultures within different countries
• ## variations between results within same country was 150% greater than between countries