cultural variations in attachment

Question 1

what is culture?

Answer 1

the norms and values that exist within any group of people.

Question 2

what are cultural variations?

Answer 2

differences in norms and values that exist between people in different groups.

Question 3

traits of individualist cultures

Answer 3

self-sufficiency, autonomy, uniqueness, independence

Question 4

traits of collectivist cultures

Answer 4

• working as a group
• doing what’s best for society
• families/communities have central role
• promote selflessness

Question 5

what were the aims of van ijzendoorn & kroonenberg’s meta analysis?

Answer 5

• to investigate whether they could find evidence that inter-cultural differences exists (differences between countries/cultures)
• to investigate whether they could find evidence that intra-cultural differences exists (differences within cultures)
• to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries

Question 6

what is a meta-analysis?

Answer 6

when a researcher looks at the findings from a number of different studies and produces a statistic to represent the overall effect.

Question 7

what was their procedure?

Answer 7

• conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies of attachment using the Strange Situation (all looking at the proportion of the 3 attachment types) in different countries
• the studies were conducted in 8 countries (18 in the USA)
• a total of 1,990 children were involved in the studies

Question 8

findings - what was the most common attachment type across cultures?

Answer 8

secure (b)

Question 9

findings - what country was the highest for each attachment type?

Answer 9

avoidant - germany
secure - great britain
resistant - israel

Question 10

conclusion of their study

Answer 10

• Findings suggest attachment has some universal features
• There is variation both between and within cultures
• SS may not be best tool for cross-cultural research as it assumes behaviour always has same significance as in US/UK

Question 11

life and upbringing in israel

Answer 11

People in Israel in Kibbutzim - They live in a communal fashion, on a type of collective farm
Children brought up by a non-family member, although they see their family daily

Question 12

israel results

Answer 12

They tend to become very upset
Half are classified as anxious/resistant
64% seemed to be securely attached

Question 13

germany results

Answer 13

Germany has a low percentage of securely attached children when the Strange Situation is used.
35% were insecure-avoidant
57% were securely attached (compared to 65% in USA)

Question 14

why does germany have a low percentage of securely attached individuals?

Answer 14

German culture involves keeping some interpersonal distance between parents and children.
Infants do not engage in proximity-seeking behaviour which makes them appear to be insecurely attached.

Question 15

one weakness of their study

Answer 15

studies are unevenly spread amongst the countries, in particular 18 studies were conducted in the USA
also the population sizes were not considered so in some countries the findings were overgeneralised and not necessarily representative