3.8 Cultural Variations

3.8 Cultural Variations

1. Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)

   • Analysed 32 studies in 8 different countries using a meta analysis. Calculated an average percentage for different attachment styles.
     • Findings: Secure attachment was the majority of infants with 70%. Lowest percentage of secure was in China and highest in Great Britain. Found that western countries that support independence had high levels of insecure avoidant. Individualist cultures had under 14% of children as Type C, but collectivist cultures had above 25%

2. Other studies

   • Italian studies
     • Simonelli (2014) conducted a study in italy, finding 50% secure and 36% insecure avoidant. Suggests that patterns of attachment types are not static.
   • Korean study
     • Conducted a study assessing 87 babies, those classifying as insecure were majorly resistant with only one avoidant.
   • Secure attachment most popular amongst all countries.

3. Evaluation

   • Strengths:
     • Most studies were conducted by indigenous psychologists therefore enhancing the validity.
   • Weaknesses:
     • Confounding variables. Not all experiments are matched in methodology and environmental variables may differ.
     • Imposing etic. Behaviours assessed in Strange Situation may have different meanings in different cultural contexts.