cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
van IJzendoorn and Kroonenbergs research
conducted a study to look at the proportions of secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-resistant attachments across a range of countries
this is to assess cultural variation
they also looked at the differences within the same countiewes to get an idea of variations within a culture
procedure
located 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been used to investigate the proportions of babies different attachment types
conducted in eight countries
15 - US
overall studies had got results for 1990 children
stat for these 32 studies was meta-analysed
meaning that the results of the studies were combined and analysed together, weighting each study for its sample size
findings
wide variation between the proportions of attachment types in different studies
in all counties secure attachment was the most common classification
proportion varies from 75% in britain and 50% in china
in individualist cultures rates of insecure-resistant attachment were similar to ainsworths original sample (all under 14%)
not true for collectivist samples from china japan and israel - rates were above 25%
interesting finding was that variations between results of statices within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries
example - US one study found only 46% securely attached compared to one sample as high as 90%
an italian study - procedure
Simonelli - 2014
study in italy to see whether the portions of babies different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies
assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using the strange situation
an italian study - findings
found 50% were secure
36% insecure-avoidant
this is a lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure-avoidant attachment than has been found in many studied
the researched suggested that this is because increasing number of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare
suggest that patterns of attachment types are not static but vary in line with cultural change
a korean study - procedure
Jin et al - 2012
conducted a study to compare the proportions of attachment types in korea to other studies
strange situation was used to assess 87 babies
a korean study - findings
overall proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries
most babies being secure
however more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant
and only one baby was avoidant
the distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types found in japan
since japan and korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this similarity might be explained in terms of child-rearing styles
conclusions on all studies
secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures
supporting bowlbys idea that attachment is innate and universal and this types is the universal norm
however reasearch also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type
strength
indigenous researchers
most of the studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists
indigenous psychologists are those from the same cultural background as the participants
Uzendoorn and Kroonenberg included the research by a german team
Keiko Takahashi who is japanese’s
this kind of research means that many problems in cross-cultural research can be avoided
such as researchers misunderstandings of language used by participants or having difficulty communicating instructions to them
difficulties can also include bias because of one nations stereotypes of another
means there is an excellent chance that researchers and participants communicated successfully - enhancing the validity of the data collected
limitation
confounding variables
limitation of 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/rurual make up cofounder results says can the age of participants studied in different countries
environmental variables might also differ between studied and confound results
example - 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 tom size might are a child more likely to be classified as avoidant
means that looking at attachment behaviour in different non-matched studied conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross-cultural patterns f attachment
limitation
imposed etic
trying to impose a test deigned for one cultural context to another context
cross-cultural sychology includes the ideas of 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
example - 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 more likely be interpreted as independent rather than insecurity
therefore that part of strange situation may not work in germany
means that the behaviours measured by the strange situation may not have the same meanings in different cultural contexts
comparing them across cultures in meaningless
