Cultural Variations In Attachment

Question 1

What is the key study of cultural variations??

Answer 1

Van Ijzebdoorn

Question 2

What was the aim of the study

Answer 2

Using the strange situation they aimed to investigate whether attachment styles differ cultures and to assess similarities and differences in the amount of attachment types in separate samples

Question 3

What was the procedure of the study

Answer 3

A meta analysis method was used to loom at the similarities and differences across a large body of research evidence. Researchers gather findings from different studies other researchers have conducted that use the strange situation and compare findings to see overall trends or differences. Studied 32 different studies. Nearly 2000 infants were analysed

Question 4

What are the findings to this study??

Answer 4

• W.Germany - secure = 57% , avoidant = 35% and resistant = 8%
• Japan - secure = 68% , avoidant = 5% , resistant = 29%
• China - secure = 50% , avoidant = 25% , resistant = 25%
• Israel - secure = 64% , avoidant = 7% , resistant = 29%
• Great Britain - secure = 75%, avoidant = 22% , resistant = 3%

Question 5

What was the conclusion of the study

Answer 5

The data suggests that there are differences between cultures in attachment styles which suggests parents raise their children differently across the world.
Despite variations with the insecure attachment styles there are elements of consistency between cultures with secure attachment being the most common in all cultures.
There was 15 times more variation within culture than between.

Question 6

What is an additional research study??

Answer 6

Takahashi compared attachment types in 60 middle class Japanese Infants aged under 12 months with American infants using the strange situation. The findings were that 68% of Japanese infants were insecure avoidant. When the Japanese infants were left alone they were distressed that the stage of the strange situation had to be abandoned, however if they had not been so distressed then as many as 80% of Japanese infants would have been classed as securely attached

Question 7

What are the strengths of cultural variations in attachment??

Answer 7

• supports universal laws of behaviour to explain attachment
• high is relatability - standardised procedures

Question 8

What are the weaknesses of cultural variations of attachment types??

Answer 8

-generalisability - many cultures with one country and samples don’t represent a large country
-culturally bias - predominantly western countries analysed