cultural variations in attachment

Question 1

cultural variations definition

Answer 1

culture refers to the norms and values that exist within any group of people. cultural variations then are the differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups. in attachment research we are concerned with the differences in the proportion of children of different attachment types

Question 2

who looked at research across a range of cultures

Answer 2

Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg

Question 3

when did Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg do research on cultural variations of attachment

Answer 3

1988

Question 4

what did Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg conduct a study on

Answer 4

to look at proportions of secure, insecure -avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries to assess cultural variation. they also looked at differences within the same countries to get an ideas of variations within a culture

Question 5

what was Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg procedure

Answer 5

located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been sued to investigate proportions of babies with different types. these were conducted in 8 countries - 15 were in the US. overall the studies yielded results for 1990 children. the data for these 32 studies were meta-analysed. this means that the results of the studies were combined and analysed together, weighting each study for its sample size

Question 6

how many locations did Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg investigate

Answer 6

8 countries, 32 studies of which 15 of these were in the US

Question 7

what type of study was Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg

Answer 7

meta-analysis

Question 8

findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg meta analysis of cultural variations

Answer 8

-wide variation between portions of attachment types in different studies. in all countries secure attachment was the most common classification. however, the proportion varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in China
-in individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to Ainsowrth’s original sample (all under 14%) but this was not true for collectivist samples form China, Japan and Israel rates were above 25% (and where rates of insecure-avoidant attachment were reduced)
-variations between results within the sample country were actually 150% greater than those between countries. in the US, for example, one study found only 46% securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%

Question 9

who did an Italian study

Answer 9

Simonelli et al 2014

Question 10

what was Simonelli et al Italian study

Answer 10

conducted a study in italy to see whether the proportions of babies of different attachments types still matches those found in previous studies. the researchers assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using the Strange situation. they found 50% were secure, with 36% insecure-avoidant. this is a lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure-avoidant attachment than has been found in many studies. the researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare –> findings suggest that patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change

Question 11

who did a study on cultural variations in Korea

Answer 11

Jin et al 2012

Question 12

what was Jin et al 2012 Korean study

Answer 12

conducted a study to compare proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies, the strange situation was used to assess 87 babies. the overall proportions if insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most babies being secure. however, more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only one baby was avoidant. this distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types found in Japan (Van Ijzendoorn and Krooneberg 1988) –> since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child-rearing style

Question 13

conclusions of cultural variations

Answer 13

-secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures, supporting Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal and this type is the universal norm
-however, the research also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type

Question 14

strength of cultural variations of attachment - Indigenous researchers

Answer 14

-most studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists
-indigenous psychologists are those from the same cultural background as the participants. for example, Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg included research by a German team (Grossmann et al 1981) and Takahasi 1986 who is Japanese, this kind of research means that many of the potential problems in cross-cultural research can be avoided, such as researchers’ misunderstanding of the language used by participants or having difficulty communicating instructions to them. difficulties can also include bias because of one nation’s stereotypes of another –> means there is an excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully - enhancing the validity of the data collected

Question 15

limitation of cultural variations of attachment - counterpoint to indigenous researchers

Answer 15

-not been true of all cross-cultural attachment research. for example Morelli and Tronick 1991 were outsiders from America when they studied child-rearing and patterns of attachment in the Efe of Zaire. their data might have been affected by difficulties in gathering data from participants outside their own culture –> means the data from some countries might have been affected by bias and difficulty in cross-cultural communication

Question 16

limitation of cultural variations of attachment - confounding variables

Answer 16

-cross-cultural research, including meta-analyses of patterns of attachment types, is the impact of confounding variables on findings
-studies conducted in different countries are not usually matched for methodology when they are compared in reviews or meta-analyses. sample characteristics such as poverty, social class and urban/rural make-up can confound results as can the age of participants studied in different countries. environmental variables might also differ between studies and confound results. for example the size of the room and the availability of interesting toys there- babies might appear to explore more in studies conducted in small rooms with attractive toys compared to large, bare rooms. less visible proximity-seeking because of room size might make children more likely to be classified as avoidant –> means looking at attachment behvaiour in different non-matched studies conduct in different countries may not tell us anything about cross-cultural patterns of attachment

Question 17

limitation of cultural variations of attachment - imposed etic

Answer 17

-trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context
-cross-cultural psychology includes ideas if emic (cultural uniqueness) and etic (cross-cultural universality). imposed etic occurs when we assume an idea or technique that works in one cultural context will work in another. an example of this in attachment research is in the use of babies response to reunion with the caregiver in the Strange Situation. in Britain and the US, lack of affection on reunion may indicate an avoidant attachment. but in Germany such behaviour would be morel likely interpreted as independence rather than insecurity. therefore that part of the Strange Situation may not work in Germany –> means that the behaviours measured by the strange situation may not have the same meaning in different cultural contexts and comparing them across cultures is meaningless

Question 18

evaluation of cultural variations of attachment - competing explanations

Answer 18

-cross-cultural research ahs found very similar attachment types in different countries. Bowlby’s theory explains this similarity by identifying attachment as innate and universal
-however, ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg suggest an alternative explanation. Namely that global media represents a particular view of how partners and babies are meant to behave. this may override traditional cultural differences in the way children are bought up