Cultural Variations

Cultural Variations

1. Aim

   • To investigate the type of attachment across cultures to see how the three main attachment types applied

2. Procedure

   • Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988) conducted a meta - analysis of 32 versions of the Strange Situation across 8 different countries
     • From the results they calculated the average percentage for the different attachment types

3. Results

   • Secure attachment - Most common form in all cultures
   • There was 1.5 x greater variation within cultures than across
     • E.g Japan - Insecure avoidant = 5% Insecure resistant = 27%

4. Conculsion

   • The greater variation within cultures suggest that sub cultural studies may be more valid than cross-cultural comparisons - the idea that there is a single culture in a country is an oversimplification

5. Evaluation

   • The study used a meta analysis and involved over 2000 babies were studied. A large sample size like this is needed in order to generalize the findings to the rest of the population
   • Ainsworth's Strange Situation procedure was developed in America (an individualistic culture) and may not be a valid measurement of attachment in other cultures. For example in Japan there was a high proportion of insecure- resistant attachments. Researchers have explained this finding in terms of traditional Japanese child-rearing practices - young infants are very rarely apart from their mother. The Strange Situation may be more distressing for them than Western infants and therefore their behavior may not demonstrate insecure attachment. Thus the Strange Situation has different meaning in different cultures.
   • Nearly all of the studies were from Westernised countries - 18 studies were from the US, but only one study from China (involving 36 infants) and two from Japan. Therefeore the studies might reflect the norms and values of Westernised industralised cultures, which limits the generalizing of the findings and also means the study lacks validity.