Cultural variations of attachment

Question 1

what is a strength of research into cultural variations of attachment

Answer 1

indigenous researchers

Question 2

explain why indigenous researchers are a strength of studies into cultural variations

Answer 2

• indigenous researchers are those from the same cultural background as the participants, for example in Grossman et al German researchers worked with German participants
• this aids communications between researchers and participants and helps prevent any misunderstandings
• this means there is a higher chance that the participants understood everything correctly, increasing the validity of the study

Question 3

what are some limitations of cultural variations studies

Answer 3

• imposed etic
• compared countries not cultures
• culturally biased

Question 4

what research suffers from imposed etic

Answer 4

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg

Question 5

how does Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg research suffer from an imposed etic

Answer 5

• all the studies that they analysed used the Ainsworth strange situation and using a test in a different cultural context than the one it was designed for is an imposed etic and may be meaningless
• the strange situation was designed in the US where lack of affection at reunion shows insecure attachment, however in Germany it shows independence
• this makes the results meaningless and lowers its validity

Question 6

why is it a limitation that Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg compared countries and not cultures

Answer 6

• they compared attachment styles between US and Japan rather than comparing attachment styles between subcultures in each countries which may have different childcare practices
• another study found a secure attachment was more common in urban areas in Tokyo and an insecure resistant attachment in rural areas
• Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg findings will therefore not be representative of a particular culture but of a particular country ignoring the variation in each making the results inaccurate

Question 7

why is Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg research culturally biased

Answer 7

• 27/32 studies they analysed were carried out on individualistic cultures so the results will not be representative of collectivist cultures where an insecure attachment may be the norm
• this makes the results inaccurate as they don’t reflect and show actual cultural variation as not a lot of different cultures were compared