Cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
Outline Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s procedure
-meta analysed 32 studies using strange situation
-15 done in US
-analysed 1990 children
Outline Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s findings
-GB= 75% secure attachment, 23% avoidant, 2% resistant
-China = 50% secure attachment,24% avoidant, 26% resistant
-individualist countries insecure resistant is similar to ainswoth research but collectivist countries - 26% resistant
-variation between studies in the same country were 150% greater than between different countries- us secure attachment ranged from 50% to 90%
Outline the Italian study by Simonelli et al. (2014)
- assessed 76 babies at 12 months
- 50 % secure attachment and 36% avoidant
- researcher suggested this was because greater number of mothers were working long hours and children were in childcare more
Outline the Korean study by Mi Kyoung et al. (2012)
-assessed 87 babies
-similar proportions of similar and insecure but babies were more insecure resistant - only 1 baby avoidant
-similar to japan study and is due to different child rearing techniques
What are strengths of cultural variations research?
-Indigenous researchers: German team- Grossman et al (1981) and Keiko Takahashi for japan study which would mean probles of cross-cultural research would have been overcome such as language barriers
HOWEVER:
Gilda Morelli and Edward Tronick were Americans researching attachment in Efe of Zoire so their data may have been affected.
What are weaknesses of the cultural variations study?
-Imposed etic: we assume the strange situation is a universal technique for measuring attachment but it may not work in other cultures as it was designed in Britain and US.
Britain- lack of affection = avoidant but in Germany this can be seen as independence.
Confounding variables: sample characteristic and environmental variables could affect results
