cultural variations in attachment

Question 1

ainsworth’s strange situation

Answer 1

• This is a shining example of ETHNOCENTRISM - a belief in the superiority of your own culture.
• Ainsworth emphasised that the ideal attachment type- secure- is always characterised by certain measurable behaviour in the strange situation- moderate distress on separation, instant joy on reunion etc, because this was the behaviour shown by the toddlers in her original American sample.
• It was soon revealed that the Strange Situation was a completely biased measure of attachment, appropriate ONLY in the culture in which it was developed.
• Ainsworth’s research is an example of IMPOSED ETIC in Psychology. She takes her own biased model and tries to IMPOSE it, inappropriately, on other cultures.

Question 2

Meta-analysis by Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg

Answer 2

• A meta-analysis is where a researcher draws together the results from a number of different studies.
• This one involved 32 studies in 8 different countries.
• The most striking finding is that there is considerable consistency across cultures- with the overall averages as 65% secure, 21% avoidant and 14% resistant.
• “there is greater consistency across cultures than WITHIN cultures” i.e. three studies within the Uk had wildly varied results!!!
• A couple of countries fell outside the normal pattern:
• Germany- disproportionate amount of avoidant attachment
• Israel and Japan (+ china) - disproportionate amount of resistant attachment

Question 3

Takahashi

Answer 3

• 68% securely attached, none were classified as avoidant insecure. 32 % classified as resistant insecure.
• Japanese children were much more disturbed than the Americans at being left alone. The left alone stage was stopped in 90% of cases because the infants became so distressed.
• Findings suggest that there are cross-cultural variations in the ways infants respond to separation and being left alone.
• Japanese infants experience much less separation than Americans- they are always with their mothers, even sleeping in the same bed as them until 2 years of age- they are never really left alone. (kangaroo parenting) → This means the strange situation was incredibly stressful for the Japanese infants.
• The fact that no infants were classified as insecure-avoidant could be due to the fact that in Japanese culture, it is considered incredibly rude to behave in this way and children would be actively discouraged from such behaviour.
• The very secure children don’t look secure, misdiagnosed what type of attachment
• The strange situation is not an appropriate measure in Japanese culture. → doesn’t accurately identify attachment types

Question 4

Grossman and Grossman

Answer 4

• found that German infants were more likely to be insecure avoidant - even if experiencing secure attachment
• They found that the strange situation was not an appropriate way of measuring attachment because results could be due to German cultural norms.
• German parents encourage keeping some interpersonal distance between themselves and their children – they believe that they are capable of being a bit more independent. This does not mean they love them any less or that they neglect them!
• Thus in the strange situation the infants would not appear to ‘need’ their Mum and would not show evidence of wanting to be close to them.

Question 5

-ve AO3 - File Drawer Phenomenon

Answer 5

• Because meta-analysis relies on published studies, we need to treat results with caution
• This is because they are naturally - biased studies that support the alternate/alternative/experimental hypothesis + reject the null are more likely to be published
• Research that supports the null gets filed away → only used when no interesting news
• Even if research has supported the null hypothesis it won’t be published
• Meta analysis relies on published studies, bias, published studies have different and interesting results

Question 6

-ve AO3 - number of studies

Answer 6

The meta analysis has a disproportionate amount of studies from the USA (18/32) which skews the data so the average can’t be trusted

Question 7

-ve AO3 - number of mother/baby pairs

Answer 7

There are an uneven no. of mother/baby pairs included in the data from around the world (China - 25, USA - 1230) –> favours USA