Cultural Variations in Attachment Flashcards
Describe the research into difference is cultural difference in attachment
The aim of Ijzendoorn + Kroonberg’s study was to look at the proportions of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant attachments across a range of countries. The research involves locating and meta-analysing 32 studies of attachment where the strange situation had been used to investigate the proportions of infants with different attachment types. They found that in all countries secure attachment was the most common classification, however the proportion varied from 75% in Great Britain to 50% in China. Insecure resistant attachment type was the least common, proportions ranged from 3% in Great Britain to 30% in Israel. Variations between results of the study within the same country were actually 150% greater than those between countries. The overall consistency in secure attachments suggests the findings are reliable. However, the significant variations of insecure attachments demonstrate that universality is limited.
Grossman and Grossman found out German infants tended to be classified as insecurely attached rather than securely attached. This may be due to different child-rearing practices. As German culture involves teaching some interpersonal distance between parents and children, so infants do not engage in proximity seeking behaviours in the strange situation and thus appear to be insecurely attached.
Takahashi used the strange situation to study 60 middle-class Japanese infants and their mothers and found similar rates of secure attachment to those found by Ainsworth et al. However, the Japanese infants showed no evidence of insecure avoidant attachment and high rates of insecure resistant attachment (32%). The Japanese infants were particularly distressed on being left alone.
Evaluate the research into cultural variations in attachment
Kagan et al suggested that attachment type is more related to temperament so the strange situation might not be measuring attachment at all. This indicates that other variables in the experiment may have affected the results such as the setting or the child’s temperament which suggest the results may lack internal validity. Furthermore, as the experiment took place in a lab and was not a longitudinal study it does not reflect real life as the behaviour observed was only a snapshot and took place in an unfamiliar setting which may have resulted in unnatural behaviour. Furthermore, the experiment does not consider individual variables so overall the results can’t be generalised.
The meta-analysis by Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg claimed to study cultural variation but, in fact, the comparisons were between countries not cultures. Within any country there are many different cultures each with different child-rearing practices. An analysis by Ijzendoorn and Sagi found that distributions of attachment type in Tokyo (an urban setting) were similar to the Western studies, whereas a more rural sample had an over-representation of insecure resistant individuals. This means that comparisons between countries may have little meaning; the particular cultural characteristics of the sample need to be specified.
The strange situation was designed by an American researcher (Ainsworth) based on a British theory (Bowlby’s). There’s a question over whether Anglo-American theories and assessments can be applied to other cultures. Therefore the strange situation is limited as it tries to apply a theory designed for one culture to another culture (which is known as imposed etic).
The Ijzendoorn and Kroonberg meta-analysis contained a very large sample. They used 2000 babies and their primary attachment figures. This is a strength because it shows results can be further generalized and it can be applied to real-world situations to help develop strong and healthy attachments. Furthermore, the large sample increases the research’s internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results.
