cultural variations - van ijzendoorn

Question 1

what was the aim of van ijzendoorn’s study?

Answer 1

to investigate how attachment types vary across cultures

Question 2

outline van ijzendoorn’s procedure

Answer 2

• meta-analysis of 32 studies, from 8 countries
• all investigating the patterns
  of attachment across a
  variety of cultures.

Question 3

outline van ijzendoorn’s findings

Answer 3

• secure was the most common attachment type
• GB had the highest % of secure children (75%)
• Japan and Israel had the highest % of insecure resistant (27%, 29%)
• Germany had the highest % of insecure avoidant (35%)
• differences within cultures were greater than the differences between them

Question 4

how many countries did van ijzendoorn study?

Answer 4

8

Question 5

what were the 8 countries?

Answer 5

USA
Netherlands
Germany
Japan
Israel
Britain
Sweden
China

Question 6

what did Grossmann and Grossmann say about German culture?

Answer 6

• Germany is an individualistic culture, parents bring up their children to be independent
• German mothers would view being ‘securely attached’ as weak, clingy behaviour

Question 7

what did Takahashi say about Japanese culture?

Answer 7

• Japanese culture is collectivistic and extended family is often closely involved in child-rearing
• meaning Japanese children have extreme stranger anxiety and don’t cope well being left alone without caregiver

Question 8

evaluation: large sample size

Answer 8

ID: a strength of cultural variation research is that it used a large sample size
Q: this means that internal validity is increased as they reduce the impact of anomalous results
EX: for example, 2000 babies and primary attachment figures were meta-analysed in van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s study.
AN: this is a strength as a large sample reduces impact of biased methodology, and is more likely to be representative to a wider population. furthermore, the study significantly developed our understanding of different child-rearing practices around the world

Question 9

evaluation: culture-bound

Answer 9

ID: The Strange Situation has been criticised as being culture-bound
Q: this means that because the sample was biased, it may not be generalisable across cultures
EX: for example, the sample consisted of only American children. this is an example of imposed etic because Ainsworth assumed that the stages of attachment she developed could be universally applied to all
children across all cultures, whereas this is unlikely to be the case. for example, in collectivist cultures, such as Japan, attachment to a monotropy is less likely.
AN: therefore, this is a limitation as it suggests the research may lack cultural validity as there is question of whether American theories and assessments can be applied to other cultures

Question 10

evaluation: research support (Jin)

Answer 10

ID: there is research support
Q: this comes from Jin who conducted research into the
distribution of attachment
patterns, using strange situation
EX: for example, he found that when the Strange Situation was used to assess 87 Korean infants aged 6 months old, the vast majority were classed as secure, and the others insecure resistant. this is similar to Japan in Van ijzendoorn’s study, which could be due to similar parenting styles
AN: Therefore, since this pattern is similar to that of Japan, this suggests that similarities in child-rearing practices are influential in establishing patterns of attachment.