Lesson 3: Cultural Variation In Attachment

Question 1

What did Van ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conduct?

Answer 1

• a meta analysis of 32 studies into attachment to see if it happened the same way in different cultures
• All studies used the strange situation to measure attachment
• Looked at relationship between Mom and Baby( <24month)
• Conducted in 8 countries: USA, UK, Germany, Japan, China, Israel

Question 2

What were the findings?

Answer 2

• Secure attachment was most common attachment style
• Second most common was Insecure Avoidant, except in Israel + Japan where it was rare, but Resistant was common
• Lowest % of secure attachments = China
• Highest % of secure attachments = UK
• Highest % of insecure avoidant = West Germany
• Overall variations within cultures were 1.5x greater than variation between cultures

Question 3

What do the similarities and differences between cultures show?

Answer 3

Similarities:
- Interactions have universal characteristics and so can be instinctive

Differences:

• Variation between cultures = child rearing practises affect attachment
• Variation within cultures = sub cultural differences affect attachment (e.g social class). Can be more important than culture

Question 4

Evaluation (+)

Answer 4

• Study is a meta analysis = large sample = valid

Question 5

Evaluation (-)

Answer 5

• Methodology made in US, not valid in other cultures so culture bias
• Israeli infants lived in a Kibbutz and didn’t meet strangers. This is why they experienced extreme distress with strangers and were classed as resistant
• The study compared countries instead of cultures e.g USA and Japan: infants in Tokyo had similar attachment to USA, but rural Japan has more insecure resistant infants.
• Measures attachment with mother. Infants have different attachment styles with their parents. They did not measure overall attachment.