psychology cultural variations in attachment Flashcards
what was van IJzendoorn and kroonenburgs research
located 32 studies of attachment where strange situation used to investigate proportions of babies with different attachment types, conducted in 8 countries, yielded results for 1990 children, data for studies were meta analysed, results of studies combined and analysed together weighting each study for sample size
wide variation between proportions of attachment types in different studies, all countries secure attachment was most common classification, proportion varied from 75% britain and 50% china, individualist cultures-rates insecure resistant attachment similar to ainsworths original sample all under 14%, collectivist cultures-rates above 25% and where rates of insecure avoidant attachment reduced
variations between results of studies within same country 150% greater than those between countries, US-one study only found 46% securely attached to one sample as high as 90%
what was the research by simonelli
assessed 76 babies aged 12 months using strange situation
found 50% seure and 36% insecure avoidant- lower rate of secure attachment and higher rate of insecure avoidant
suggests because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare
suggests patterns of attachment types arent static but vary in line with cutural change
what was mi kyoung jin research
used to assess 87 babies
overall proportions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries with most babies being secure, moer of those classified as insecure were resistant only one was avoidant, distribution is similar to distribution of attachment types foun in japan
jpan and jorea have similar child rearing styles similarity might be explained in terms of child rearing style
what were the conclusions
secure attachment seems to be norm in wide range of cultures supporting bowlby idea attachment is innate and universal and this type is universal norm
research clearly shows cultural practices have influence on attachment type
what is indigenous researchers
most studies conducted by indigenous researchers (from same cultural background as pps)
van IJzendoorn and kroonenburg included research by german team and takahashi japanese
may potential problems in cross cultural research can be avoided such as researchers misunderstandings of language or hvaing difficulty communicating instructions, difficulties also include vias because of ones nations stereotypes of another
excellent chance that researchers and pps communicated successfully enhancing validity of data collected
not been true of all cross cultural attachment
morelli and tronick-outsiders from america when studied child rearing and patterns of attachment in efe of zaire, data might have been affected difficulties in gathering data from pps outside their own culture
data from some countries might have been affected by bias and difficulty in cross cultural communication
what is confounding variables
impact of confounding variables on findings
studies conducted in different countries not usually matched for methodology when compared in reviwes or meta analyses
sample characteristics such as poverty social class and urban rural make up can confound results as can age of pps studied in different countries
environmental variables differ between studies and confound results-size of room and availability of interesting toys there babies appear to explore more in studies conducted in small rooms with attractive rooms compared to large bare rooms, less visible proximity seeking because room size might make child more likely to be classified as avoidant
looking at attachment behaviour in different non matched studies conducted in different countries may not tell us anything about cross cultural patterns of attachment
what is imposed etic
trying to impose a test designed for one cultural context to another context
cross cultural psychology includes ideas of emic (cultural uniqueness) and etic (cross cultural universality)
imposed etic occurs when assume idea or technique that works in one cutlural context will work in another-babies response to reunion with caregiver in strange situation
britain and us lack of affection of reunion may indicate avoidant but germany would be more likely interpretated as independent rather than insecurity
behaviours measured by strange situation may not have same meanings in different cultural context and comparing them across cultures in meaningless
