Studies of Cultural Variations Flashcards
Who were the people who did a study into the cultural variations in attachments?
Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg
What was the aim of their study?
The aim was to investigate the promotions of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant attachment types across cultures
What procedure was used in this study?
Sample size?
Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg used a meta analysis of 32 studies from 8 countries that had used Ainsworth’s Strange Situation. There were 1900 infants used in the studies
Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg used 32 studies. Out of the 32 studies, how many were form the USA?
15 of the 32 studies were from the USA
What were the findings of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s cultural variations study according to each attachment type?
Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg found that secure attachments were the common attachment types found across all cultures. With China having the lowest amount of secure attachments and Britain + Sweden being equal in their amounts.
Insecure resistant was overall the least common attachment. However Japan and Israel (collectivist cultures) showed higher levels in comparison to other cultures.
Insecure avoidant was the most common in Germany and least common in Japan
It was also found that variations between cultures was 150% greater than between showing that not all children are brought up in the exactly the same way in a particular country or culture
Japan and Israel are collectivist cultures. What does this mean?
Collectivist cultures are communities that prioritise the group over individuals
What does it mean when a country is described as having a “individualist culture”?
A country having a individualist culture means there is a promotion of individual goals and achievements, so relying or being dependent on others is seen as shameful
What is another study of cultural variation that used the strange situation method? (Mi Kyoung Jin)
A Korean study led by Mi Kyoung Jin (2012) used the strange situation method to assess 87 babies. Most abuse were classified as secure and the results were overall similar to most other countries, particularly Japan. This may be explained by the fact that Japan and Korea have similar cultures
What is a limitation of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research? (meta analysis)
The study uses meta - analysis. This means that the study compares the findings of a number of studies. The flaw of this is that the findings of the research will be subject to any methodological problems of original research. This would lower the internal validity of the study as the finding may be prone to errors and thus not be an accurate measure of what it has intended to measure
What is a limitation of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research? (representative)
A criticism of this research is that it is not representative of all cultures. The study collects data across 8 different countries. However, critics argue that within any country there are many different cultures each with different child rearing practices. This means that the research is not useful in representing attachment types across different cultures.
What is a limitation of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research? (internal validity)
Critics also argue that the strange situation does not accurately measure attachment. The strange situation method identifies stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. It is argued that the method lacks internal validity because it’s measuring anxiety, not types of attachments. Therefore reducing the internal validity of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s findings
