cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
what country has the highest number of
insecure resistant babies?
israel (29%)
and japan 27%
what attachment type was the most commin?
type B secure attachment
what country had the least avoidant babies?
japan - 2.5%
what country has the most avoidant babies?
germany- 35%
difference between countries than within cultures?
there was a 1.5 x greater variation within a culture than between a culture
where was insecure resistant mostly found?
mainly found in collectivist cultures
israel 29%
japan 27%
china 25%
what country had the least amount of insecure resistant babies?
great britain
2.8%
what was van izjenndoorn and kroonbergs study?
conducted a large scale meta analysis
analysed the results of 32 seperate studies which used ainsworths strange situation
over 2000 babies were studied
why did the israeli studies have so may insecure resistant babies?
israeli children were so used to being seperated from their mother as a result they dont show anxiety when their mother leaves
however they are not used to strangers so get distressed when left alone with a stranger , this explains the high % of insecure resistant children
why were there so many avoidant babies in germany?
german cultures raise independent children
grossman et al says that german parents seek independent non clingy infants who do not make demands on parents but obey their commands
this explains the high % of avoidant babies as they are used to being independent so they are not phased when their caregiver leaves them
why were there so many resistant babies in japan?
japanese children are very rarely left by their mother so their distress when she leaves is probably more due to shock rather than insecure attachment
the distress they show when left alone with the stranger is also more likely to be due from absense of the mother
strength: ethically sound
a meta analysis uses data that has already been collected so no more children had to be put through the potentially traumatic strange situation
so there are no more children becoming distressed due to the strange situation- meaning no harm has been done
strength: application to psychology
this study was the first large scale comparison of attachment studies in different countries
the conclusions significantly developed understanding of not just different child rearing practices in different cultures but how these different child rearing practices can impact on childs attachment type
large sample size
large sample of 2000 babies mean any anomalous results will have little affect on overall findings of the study
ethnocentric procedure
the strange situation is argued to be ethnocentric procedure. it was developed america based on american norms so it may only be useful for studying western children
using it to asses attachments of non western cultures could be argued to be innapropriate as it doesnt take into account culturally specific elements
study may not be truly representative
in some countries van izendoorn only looked at a small number of study e.g in china he used 1 compared to 18 in the usa
this means that the results for these countries may not be truly representative and may not generalise to the country where large number of studies have been used
what is the aim of takahashi
to see whether it is appropriate to use the strange situation with japanese children
the key question is whether the strange situation is a valid procedure for cultures other than the original one (american middle class)
by making comparisons between japaneese and american group it may be possible to reveal the cultural symptoms on which the strange situation is biased
what is the proceudre of takahashi
the participants were 60 middle class japanese infants ages 1 year, boys, girls and their mothers
they were all raised at home
the infants and mothers were observed in the strange situation
what were the findings of takahashi?
68% of infants were identified as securely attached - almost identical to the original american study (70%)
no infants were classed as insecure avoidant
32% were classified as insecure resistant
the japanese infants were more disturbed after being left alone- the stage where infants were left alone was stopped for 90% of the participants because infants became so distressed
if the infants had not become so distressed more than 80% would have been classified as securely (the observation of distress lead to an alternative classification)
what are the colclusions of takahashi?
the findings suggest that there are cross cultural variations in the way infants respond to seperation and being left alone, this difference may be due to the fact that japanese infants are almost never left alone
this means that for them the strange situation was more than mildly stressful and the behaviours observed were reactions to extreme situations- not the original aim of the strange situation#
lack of avoidant behaviour in this sample- japanese children are taught that such behaviours are impolite and they would be discouraged from displaying it
the strange situation doesnt have the same meaning for the japanese as it does for americans and therefore is not a valid form of assessment for that culture
