Cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
Who conducted research into cultural variations in attachment?
Van Izjendoorn and Kronenberg (1988)
What did Van Izjendoorn and Kronenberg do?
Conducted a meta analysis of 32 studies using 8 countries, all investigating the patterns of attachment across a variety of cultures
What did they find when comparing variations within countries to variation between countries?
Variations within the same country were 150% greater than those between countries
What did they find for securely attached children?
In all countries secure attachment was the most common classification
Varied from 75% in Britain to 50% in china
What did they find for insecure resistant children?
Overall least common type
Proportions ranged from 3% in Britain to around 30% in Israel
What did they find for insecure avoidant children?
Observed most commonly in germany and least commonly in Japan
What are the conclusions we can make from studies into cultural variations
Secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of cultures which supports bowlbys idea of attachment being innate and universal
However, cultural practices have an influence on attachment type
Evaluation: sample size
One strength is that there was a large sample used
1990 babies and their primary attachment figures in the sample
Results will be more representative of the population, increasing population validity
Evaluation: misleading findings
One weakness is that the findings may have been misleading
A disproportionately high number of the studies reviewed were conducted in the USA (18/32), the overall findings would have been distorted by these
This means that the apparent consistency between cultures might not be accurate, failing to genuinely reflect how much attachment types vary between cultures
Evaluation: ethnocentric
A weakness is that the method of assessment is ethnocentric
the strange situation was designed by an american researcher for use on american participants, and based off of British theory. this means it is questionable as to whether this can actually be applied to countries outside of western Europe or whether doing so would be an example of imposed etic. for example, lack of separation anxiety and positive reunion behaviour would indicate an avoidant attachment, however in Germany this might be seen as the desirable trait of independence rather than lack of security (grossmann and grossmann 1990). this demonstrates bias in the method of assessing attachment type.
