Cultural variations in attachment

Cultural variations in attachment

1. If attachment was biological you would expect to see the same attachment types internationally.

2. Ijzendoorn and Kroonenburg:metaanalysis of the strange situation over 32 studies in 8 countries (found 21/67/12)- all apart from germany mainly had secure-intracultural differences bigger than interculural differences( in one study in US there was 94% type A compared to 47% in another- type A found more in west- type c found in japan,israel,china.

   • Secure attachments seem to be norm for wide range of culturessupporting bowblys idea of it being innate-however it does show that cultural practices have an infuence on attachment.

3. Negative Evaluation:strage situation method may be biased towards western culture ( designed by an american and based on a british theory-ainsworth and bowlby-implying this on different cultures is imposed etic which disregards the notion of cultural etic-germans independence may not be an insecurity)--alternative explanation for similarities between cultures (may be down to mass media and no innateness-similarities in child rearing)

4. Positive Evaluation:meta analysis has large samples-increases representativeness-increase internal validity-total of nearly 2000 babies and their primary attachment figure.