Cultural Variations

Question 1

what is meant by culture

Answer 1

the norms and values that exist within any group of people

Question 2

what was the aim of van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research

Answer 2

to look at the proportions of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure resistant attachments across countries

Question 3

what was the procedure of van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research

Answer 3

• meta analysis of 32 studies of attachment using the strange situation
• these were conducted in 8 countries
• 15 of the studies were in the USA
• 1,990 children

Question 4

what were the findings of van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s research

Answer 4

• secure attachment - 75% in britain, 50% china
• individualist cultures - rates of insecure resistant was under 14%
• collectivist cultures - rates were above 25%

Question 5

who conducted the italian study

Answer 5

simonella et al

Question 6

what was the procedure and the findings of the italian study

Answer 6

simonella et al

• assessed 76 babies using the strange situation
• 50% were secure
• 36% insecure avoidant

Question 7

what do the reseachers suggest that is the cause of the findings in the italian study

Answer 7

increasing number of mothers of very young children worl long hours and use childcare

Question 8

who conducted the korean study

Answer 8

jin et al

Question 9

what was the procedure and the findings of the korean study

Answer 9

jin et al

• assessed 87 babies using the syrange situation
• proportions of insecure and secure babies were similiar to those in most countries

Question 10

what do the cultural variations studies tell us

Answer 10

cultural practices have an influence on attachment type

Question 11

strength

evaluate van Ijzendoorn

Answer 11

• P - large sample sizes
• Eg - the meta analysis included nearly 2000 infants across 32 studies in 8 different countries
• Ex - increases the internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous results
• L - the conclusions drawn about attachment type are more likely to be reliable
• H - some countries were overrepresented (15 of the 32 were from the USA), which may bias the findings

Question 12

limitation

evaluate van Ijzendoorn

Answer 12

• P - comparison in cultural variation studies may be based on countries not actual cultures
• Eg - compared attachment types across countries like USA and china but within each country there may be multiple subcultures
• Ex - thid means the variation within a coiuntry can be as significant as the variation between countries
• L - generalising findings from one area could be misleading
• H - Even so, their meta-analysis is still valuable because it revealed a clear global pattern: secure attachment was the most common style everywhere. Spotting that universal trend suggests a strong biological underpinning for attachment that cuts across cultural differences