Studies of Cultural Variations

Question 1

Who were the people who did a study into the cultural variations in attachments?

Answer 1

Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

Question 2

What was the aim of their study?

Answer 2

The aim was to investigate the promotions of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant attachment types across cultures

Question 3

What procedure was used in this study?
Sample size?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg used 32 studies. Out of the 32 studies, how many were form the USA?

Answer 4

15 of the 32 studies were from the USA

Question 5

What were the findings of Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s cultural variations study according to each attachment type?

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Japan and Israel are collectivist cultures. What does this mean?

Answer 6

Collectivist cultures are communities that prioritise the group over individuals