Cultural variations in attachment

Question 1

What was Ijzendoorn and Kroonenbergs research?

Answer 1

• Conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant & insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation.

Question 2

What was the procedure of Ijzendoorn and Kroonbergs research?

Answer 2

• Researcher located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been used to investiagte the proportion of babies with different attachment types
• These were conducted in 8 countries- 15 in the US
• Overall studies yielded results for 1,990 children
• The data for these studies was meta-analysed together, weighting each study for its sample size

Question 3

What were Ijzendoorn and Kroonbergs findings?

Answer 3

• Was a wide variation between the propotions of attachment types in different studies.
• In all countries secure attachment was most common classfication
• However proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China
• In indiviudal cultures rates of insecure resistant attachment were similiar to Ainsworth original sample (all under 14%)
• But this was not true for collectivist samples from Japan, China & Israel where where rates were above 25%

Question 4

What other studies of cultural variation were there?

Answer 4

An italian study- Simonelli et al (2014)
Conducted a study to see whether the proportions of babies of different attachmen types still matches those in found in previous studies.
Researchers assesed 76 babies aged 12 months using the strange situation

Question 5

What were Simonelli et al’s findings?

Answer 5

• 50% babies were secure with 36% insecure-avoidant
• This is a lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure attachment
• Researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours & use professional childcare

These findings suggest that patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change

Question 6

Give another cultural variation study that was conducted.

Answer 6

A Korean Study- Jin et al (2012)
- Conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies.
- The Strange Situation was used to assess 87 babies.
- The overall proportions of insecure & secure babies were similar to those in most countries with most babies being secure
- However most of those classifies as insecurely attached were resistant and only one baby was avoidant

Since Japan & Korea have quite similar child rearing styles this similarity may explained in terms of child rearing

Question 7

What conclusions can we make from the studies of cultural variation?

Answer 7

• Secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate & universal & this type is the univeral norm
• However research also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type

Question 8

What is one strength of cultural variations research?

Answer 8

• Most of the studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists- those from same cultural backround as the ppts
• This kind of research means that many of the potential problems in cross-cultural research can be avoided such as researchers misunderstandings of langugage & language barriers
• Can also avoide bias because of one nations stereotypes of another

This means there is an excellent chance that researchers & ppts communicated succesfully- enhancing the validity of the data collected

Question 9

What is one limitation of research into cultural variations of attachment?

Answer 9

OL is the impact of co-founding variables on findings
- Studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews/meta analyses
- Sample characteristics such as poverty,social class & urban/rural make up can confound results as can the age of ppts studied in different countries
- Environmental variables may also differe between studies & confound results for example size of room & avaliability of interesting toys there- babies might appear to explore more in studies conducted in small rooms w attractive toys compared to large bare rooms

This means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross-cultural patterns of attachment

Question 10

Give another limitation of research into studies of cross cultural variations.

Answer 10

• OL is in trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context
• Cross cultural psychology includes the ideas of emic (cultural uniqueness) and etic. Imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another
• An example of this is in attachment research is in the use of babies response to reunion with the caregiver in the SS. In Britain & US lack of affection on reunion may indicate avoidant attachment. But in Germany may be seen as independance rather thaqn insecurity. Therefore that part of the strange situation may not work in Germany.

This means that the behaviours measured by the SS may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts, and comparing them across cultures is meaningless