cultural variations in attachment

Question 1

what is meta-analysis

Question 2

who and when did they conducted a study on cultural variations using meta-analysis ?

Answer 2

• van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

Question 3

what was the aim of of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg ?

Answer 3

• to investigate cross-cultural variations in attachment

Question 4

what did they look at specifically ?

Answer 4

• the proportions of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure attachment across cultures

Question 5

what did they also look at ?

Answer 5

• the differences within the same countries to get an idea of variations within a culture

Question 6

what was the procedure of the experiment ?

Answer 6

• 32 studies from 8 different countries –> used Ainsworth Strange situation
  (15 were in the USA)
• overall 32 studies yielded results for 1990 children
• data was meta-analysed
  –> results were being combined and weighted for a sample size

Question 7

what are the findings of the study ?

Answer 7

• secure attachment was the most common (50-75 %) followed by avoidant and resistant
• resistant was least common ( Japan + Israel showed higher levels in comparison to other cultures )
• insecure avoidant was most common in Germany and least common in Japan
• variation within cultures was 150 % greater than between
  e.g in 1 study type B was 46 % compared to 90 %

Question 9

who was the italian woman that conducted research on cultural variations in attachment ?

Answer 9

Simonelli et al 2014

Question 10

what did she conduct her study on ?

Answer 10

in Italy
- to see whether the proportion of babies of different attachment types still matches those in previous studies

Question 11

what did the researcher assess ?

Answer 11

76 12 month olds using strange situation

Question 12

what was the findings of the experiment ?

Answer 12

• 50 % secure + 36 % avoidant ( lower in previous studies )

Question 13

what did the findings of the experiment suggest ?

Answer 13

• suggested that due to the increasing numbers of mothers working long hours and using professional childcare

Question 14

what did the findings also suggest about cultural changes ?

Answer 14

• it can make a big difference to patterns of secure and insecure attachment

Question 15

who conducted a korean study and when ?

Answer 15

• Jin et al (2012)

Question 16

what did he conduct a study on ?

Answer 16

• to compare the proportions of attachment types in Korea to other studies

Question 17

how did he conduct this study ?

Answer 17

• using the strange situation to assess 87 children

Question 18

what did the overall proportions show ?

Answer 18

• insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries , with most infants being secure

Question 19

what did the overall conclusions show ?

Answer 19

• secure attachment seems to be the norm across many cultures
  –> which supports Bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal

Question 20

what did the overall conclusion also show ?

Answer 20

• that cultural differences can make dramatic differences in the patterns of attachment