lesson 9 cultural variations in attachments Flashcards
define culture
norms and values that exist within any group of people
what is an individualistic culture?
culture that values independence and importance of the individual
what is a collectivist culture?
culture that emphasises the importance of the group or the collective
Tronick et al
1992
African tribe, the Efe, from Zaire who live in extended family groups which means infants are looked after and breastfed by different women while sleeping with their mothers at night
infants at six months still showed one primary attachment supporting the idea of monotropy
Simonella
Italy 2014
in a sample of 76 12 month olds using the strange situation 50% were found to be securely attached and 36% insecure-avoidant
lower rate of secure attachments because of increase of women in work and are using professional childcare
cultural changes can make a difference to patterns of attachments
Jin et al
Korea 2012
strange situation used on 87 children
overall proportion of insecure and secure babies were similar to other countries
insecurely attached children were mainly insecure resistant
similar to Japan as Japan and Korea have similar child-rearing styles
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
meta-analysis of findings from 32 studies of attachment behaviours
examined over 2000 strange situation classifications in 8 countries
findings of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
in all countries secure attachment was the most common
china had lowest amount of secure attachments- 50%- but an equal amount of insecure- avoidant and insecure-resistant
insecure-avoidant was the next most common except in Israel and Japan, high in individualistic countries
insecure-resistant most common in collectivist cultures like Japan and Israel
VARIATIONS BETWEEN RESULTS OF STUDIES IN THE SAME COUNTRY WERE 150% GREATER THAN THOSE BETWEEN COUNTRIES, USA ONE STUDY FOUND 46% SECURELY ATTACHED AND ONE FOUND 90%
evaluation points for cultural variations for attachments
large samples increase internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results caused by bad methodology or unusual participants
within a country there are many different cultures each with different child-rearing practices so samples can be unrepresentative of a culture
method of assessment is biased as the strange situation was a western based assessment so question of if it can be applied to other cultures
3 major differences between Japanese and American cultures
sensitivity hypothesis- sensitivity is about promoting independence in America and dependence in Japan
continuity hypothesis- individuals expected to share emotions in America not expected to in Japan
secure-base hypothesis- in America parents are meant to be a secure-base form which the child is meant to explore in Japan attachments are dependence oriented
