Van IJzendoorn & Kroonenberg

Question 1

AO1- Aim

Answer 1

To see if there are variations in attachment between cultures using the strange situation via a meta-analysis across 8 cultures. Also looking for differences within a culture.

Question 2

AO1- Sample

Answer 2

32 strange situation studies from 8 cultures, 1990 children in total. All under 2, none with special educational needs, all mothers and babies (studies were chosen to ensure they had these qualities).

Question 3

AO1- Procedure

Answer 3

• Meta- analysis method using secondary data
• Cross-cultural study comparing attachment behaviour
• 32 strange situation studies (18 US, 2 Japanese, 1 Chinese etc), 1990 children in total.
• All under 2, none with special educational needs, all mothers and babies, they only used studies which included only the main 3 types of attachment
• Strange situation monitors child’s behaviour as parent and strange leave, enter and try to interact with child (you could do a bit more description of this if you feel you need more AO1)
• Compared results within culture and across culture

Question 4

AO1- Results

Answer 4

• Secure attachments were the most common form in all of the cultures surveyed (all but one study- G&G 1985)
• The highest proportion was found in Great Britain
• Avoidant attachments were most commonly found in West Germany than any other western culture
• Israel and Japan had high number of resistant
• Ambivalent/Resistant attachments were most commonly found in Japan
• Also found differences within cultures (1.5 times greater than between cultures) e.g. middle class vs working class For instance, one of their Japanese studies showed no avoidant attachment babies, whereas the second found around 20%, which is similar to Ainsworth’s original findings

Question 5

+AO3 Generalisability

Answer 5

Secondary data allows for large amounts of data from numerous studies to be analysed to gain a better understanding of the trends occurring

Large sample of 1990 children making it more representative to a wide population

Not ethnocentric as 8 different cultures including collectivise and individualistic were used* making it more valid

Question 6

+AO3 Validty

Answer 6

Compare and look for trends/patterns across many studies making the findings more robust/credible

Question 7

+AO3 Useful

Answer 7

Cross-cultural- Useful as it lets us see whether behaviour is caused by nature or nurture which can influence how we raise/look after children

Question 8

+AO3 EVs

Answer 8

eliminated from the studies i.e. age of children, special needs etc to make sure the results are comparable and this makes it more valid

Question 9

+AO3 Reliable/standardised

Answer 9

All used the same standardised strange situation (including the 3 types of attachment) which makes it more replicable

Question 10

-AO3 Publication bias

Answer 10

could be a problem because only certain studies get published which damages the validity of the results

Question 11

-AO3 Generalisability

Answer 11

Too much focus on US (18) , very few collectivist cultures were used making it less representative

Some like China and UK only had one study (anomalies) so we don’t know if their results are really representative

Only mother and children so doesn’t apply to other relationships

Question 12

-AO3 Reductinist

Answer 12

Only mother and children so doesn’t apply to other relationships

Question 13

-AO3 Kagan

Answer 13

might not be parent responsiveness but rather child temperament

Question 14

-AO3 Ethnocentric procedure

Answer 14

The procedure doesn’t work for Japanese children causing validity issues