Cultural Variations in attachment: Van Ijzendoorn Flashcards
What did Ijzendoorn + Kroonenburg conduct a large meta analysis on and what did they include?
Conducted a large meta analysis on 32 studies from 8 countries into the different attachment types that used the Strange Situation.
Included 1,990 children’s attachment identifications.
What did Izjendoorn + Kroonenburg do with the data from the separate studies?
They compiled and reanalysed the data to help show the general patterns of attachment and highlight any differences between the cultures included.
What were the 2 results from Ijzendoorn’s meta analysis?
-found many differences worldwide, and that similarities outweigh these by about x1.5, means diffs within 1 country are about 1.5x greater than diffs between 2 countries
-secure attachment type was most common in all countries, with a high of 75% in UK, and low of 50% in China.
What is an example of significant differences within a culture?
shown in the US where in a study, 90% showed secure attachments compared with only 46% in another study.
What is the difference between collectivist and individualist cultures?
collectivist - emphasis on doing things for a group, rather than for individual
individualist - people put their own needs first
where are collectivist cultures and individualist cultures found in the world?
collectivist - found in the east, e.g china
individual - found in western, e.g UK.
What cultural difference was found between collectivist and individualist cultures in this study?
-In collectivist cultures, children often encouraged to be closely bonded to parents, and are rarely separated from their PAF
-Contrasting, in individualistic cultures, children encouraged to be on their own, e.g having their own room after 6months.
What did Tronick et al. do and find that influences similarities between cultures, regarding Congo and the Effe tribe?
They used the Strange Situation to assess attachment in collectivist cultures of the Efe tribe in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Found that even though child rearing is task of all women, infants still had one PAF, who typically was their mother.
What did Ainsworth study and what did she find from this, regarding Uganda + Baltimore?
she studied attachment in Uganda / Baltimore using natural observations, before creating ‘ Strange Situation.’
Found that secure attachments were remarkably similar between the countries, and that those mothers who were most caring had stronger attachment with children.
What do the findings of Ainsworth support?
Supports the universality of attachment and that caregiver sensitivity is the most important in attachment development.
What did Fox do with the Strange Situation?
He used it to study infants who were being cared for by nurses whilst parents were working full time in communal farms in Israel.
What did Fox find from his study regarding communal farms in Israel?
-found infants still had their strongest attachments to their mother, even though they spent most of the time with the nurses in children’s homes.
What two things do the findings of Fox support, in regards to communal farms in Israel?
-Supports idea that there are many similarities between cultures in terms of attachment
-Supports the idea that we form one PAF and that others will be secondary (monotropy)
What was the difference ,found by Grossman and Grossman, in the development of attachment for children in Germany?
As Germans have a strict tradition of keeping your distance from others, many infants were labelled as having an insecure-avoidant attachment.
What is the issue with Grossman/ Grossman’s study and what does this suggest researchers have to do?
The perspective that infants were insecure-avoidant was proposed from UK researchers, but in Germany, they’d class this as being happy / secure.
Suggests researchers have to be careful when studying other cultures so as not to be ethnocentric.
What do the studies of Takahashi demonstrate regarding children’s attachment types?
They demonstrated that there were no insecure-avoidant infants and instead there were elevated levels of insecure-resistant infants.
Why do infants develop attachment differently in Japan than infants do elsewhere?
They are rarely left on their own, and that they are almost always with their PAF.
Due to never being separated from PAFs, how did infants react in the ‘Separation Anxiety’ part to the Strange Situation, and what did this often lead to?
The infants were terribly upset when they were separated from their PAF.
Lead to 90% of the observations having to be stopped, due to the level of infant distress.
What must indigenous researchers make sure to be careful with and why in regards to studying attachment’s in Japan?
They have to make sure they aren’t being culturally biased because Japan has a different view on what a secure attachment should be.
Who did Mi Kyoung Jin et al. (2012) conduct the ‘Strange Situation’ on and find from this?
Conducted it on 87 babies in Korea.
Found that:
-Secure attachment was most common
-Followed by Insecure Resistant
-Only one baby was insecure avoidant.
What is the main strength with Ijzendoorn’s meta analysis and what does this increase?
Provide examples
Several researchers were indigenous to the country they conducted their research in.
E.g Takahashi is Japanese, Grossman’s are German
This increases validity as researchers are familiar with the specifics of the culture.
In contrast to the strength of Ijzendoorn’s meta analysis, what also occurred that is a weakness and provide examples.
Some studies weren’t conducted by indigenous researchers, e.g Tronick is american and he studied in TDR of Congo.
This may influence cultural bias as he may not have understood everything.
What did Rothbaurn et al. (2000) criticise against the ‘Strange Situation’ and provide an example of this.
They believe it shouldn’t be used to investigate attachment in other cultures as it was created in the US and is thus culturally biased.
E.g Takahashi found Strange Situation wasn’t very appropriate for studying Japanese attachment types as infants found it too stressful.
Define ‘Imposed Etic’
This occurs when researchers from one culture attempt to analyze or explain the behavior, values, or practices of another culture using their own cultural biases.
Define ‘Etic’
This is an idea/ technique that is being imposed on a culture which is different to a researcher’s own.
What 2 things does ‘Imposed Etic’ influence and what is an example of where something has gone wrongly in the past from it?
-Reduces Validity
-Mistakes are made, E.g German infants were identified as being insecurely attachment, but were seen as secure in German culture.
