Cultural variations

Question 1

Define culture

Answer 1

set of attitudes, values, practises and goals that characterise a group of people

Question 2

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 2

Believing that your own ethnic or cultural group is the most important and all other groups are measured in relation to your own

Question 3

What does cross cultural research allow us to do?

Answer 3

allows us to investigate whether attachment types are universal or culturally specific

Question 4

What was the aim of Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg?

Answer 4

Investigated the existence of inter-cultural differences and intra-culture differences in attachment

Question 5

What was the procedure?

Answer 5

Carried out a meta-analysis of 32 studies that used the Strange situation

Question 6

What were the findings?

Answer 6

• Differences between cultures were small
• Variations within cultures were 1.5x greater than variation between cultures

Question 7

What was the conclusion?

Answer 7

There is a global pattern of attachment types. Secure attachment being the most common and therefore the most healthiest form of attachment

Question 8

What does these cultural similarities show?

Answer 8

attachment is a biological and innate process because securely attached behaviour is seen to be the most common globally throughout different cultures

Question 9

What did Takahashi find?

Answer 9

• found significant differences in attachment styles
• In middle class Japanese infants and their mothers showed no evidence of insecure-avoidant and high levels of insecure-resistance
• Extremely distressed upon separation
• In Japan, infants rarely experience separation from their mothers, thus they appear insecurely attached (according to Ainsworth)

Question 10

A03 - Similarities may be due to global culture

Answer 10

• According to Bowlby’s theory the reason for universal similarities in how attachment forms is because it is innate, unmodified by culture
• Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg carried out meta-analysis of 32 studies and concluded that at least some cultural similarities could be explained by mass media (TV, books)
• which spread ideas about parenting so children all over the world are exposed to similar influences
• This means that cultural similarities may not be due to innate biological influences but are because of increasingly global culture

Question 11

A03 - An issue with Van IJzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s is that they were studying countries rather than culture

Answer 11

• For example, they compared Japan with the US.
• In each country there are various different sub cultures, which many have different child care practises
• One study of attachment in Tokyo found similar distributions of attachment to Western studies, whereas rural sample found a representation of insecure-resistant individuals
• Suggests that great caution must be taken when using the term ‘cultural variations’ and especially when assessing whether an individual sample is representative of a particular culture

Question 12

A03 - An issue with the research conducted in different countries is the ‘tools’ that are used and whether they are valid

Answer 12

• Observational methods such as the strange situation are related to the cultural assumptions of the ‘designer’
• In the case of the SS (designed by American) it is assumed that willingness to explore is a sign of secure attachment
• However, in some cultures this is not the case
• In Japanese culture, dependence rather than independence is seen as secure attachment
• Japanese children will therefore be seen as insecurely attached according to Western criteria
• This means that the SS may lack validity in other countries.