Van Ijzendoorn cross cultural differences in attachment

Question 1

Van Ijzendoorn Process

Answer 1

-Van Ijzendoorn (1988) conducted a meta analysis of over 2000 studies involving 8 different countries. Each of these countries used the “strange situation” to identify attachment styles

Question 2

Van Ijzendoorn results

Answer 2

GENERAL RESULTS
-Overall secure attachment styles were the most common, with resistant attachment styles overall being the least common
-There was a higher proportion of infants with an insecure avoidant attachment style in Western, individualistic cultures, and more infants with a resistant attachment style in non western, collectivist cultures. Variation within cultures was more significant than between countries
SPECIFIC RESULTS
-Germans had the highest proportion of infants with an insecure avoidant attachment style (35%)
-Israel and Japan had the highest proportion of infants with a resistant attachment style (29%) and (27%)
-China had the lowest proportion of infants with a secure attachment style (50%)

Question 3

Van Ijzendoorns conclusions + explanation of variation between countries

Answer 3

-Secure attachment was the most common attachment style in all countries, suggesting there is a globally preferred attachment style with a potential biological basis
EXPLANATION OF VARIATIONS BETWEEN COUNTRIES:
-German families encourage independent and non-clingy behaviour, therefore the infants often do not show distress and are classified as insecure-avoidant, explaining the high proportion of avoidant children
-Japanese mothers on the other hand, tend to sped a significant amount of time with their infant, therefore the infant displays extreme distress when separated, leading to them being classified as insecure resistant

Question 4

Negative evaluation of the strange situation and van Ijzendoorn’s study (temporal validity simonelli 2014)

Answer 4

-Ainsworth’s (1970) and Van Ijzendoorn’s (1988) studies may lack temporal validity, due to the changing role of the mother in modern day
-Simonelli (2014) measured attachment in modern day italian infant-mother pairs using the strange situation
-It was found that the percentage of securely attached infants was significantly lower, and the percentage of avoidant infants was significantly higher compared to significant results of Italian mother infant attachments
-Researchers suggest that this change is a healthy coping mechanism where the baby adjusts to the frequent absence of the mother by not showing extreme distress when separated

Question 5

Positive evaluation (supports Bowlby’s theory)

Answer 5

-Secure attachment styles was the most common acorss all countries; this provides evidence for Bowlby’s theory that all mothers are biologically programmed to produce secure attachments in their infants

Question 6

Negative evaluation of Van Ijzendoorn study (small sample not representative+ variation within countries>between)

Answer 6

-Many countries in Van Ijzendoorn’s study only had one study included; such a small sample is not representative of the entire population as a certain group can be over represented in the study (e.g urban infants)
-Additionally, when more than one study was used on countries, it was found that the variation in attachment styles within countries was more significant than those between countries

Question 7

Positive evaluation of Van Ijzendoorn’s study (large sample used, unusual results will have small effect)

Answer 7

-The meta analysis used in Van Ijzendoorn’s study included a very large sample; a strength of this is that any poorly conducted experiments or unusual results will only have a very small effect on the overall results, this increases the confidence in the validity of the overall findings