– The Strange Situation procedure has had a profound impact within psychology
– The procedure has been used in a variety of cultural settings to identify whether patterns of attachments appear to be universal or are subject to cultural influences.
– However, child rearing techniques vary across cultures
– Cultural variations are the way that different groups of people vary in terms of their social practices and the effects these practices have on development and behaviour
VAN IJZENDOORN & KROONENBERG (1988)
– One of the most commonly cited cross-cultural studies which uses the Strange Situation procedure was conducted by Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s in 1988.
PROCEDURE
– They conducted a meta-analysis examined 32 studies of attachment behaviour
– Altogether they studied 2000 Strange Situation classifications
– They summarised findings from 8 countries – UK, US, Sweden, Japan, China, Holland, Germany & Israel.
FINDINGS
– They found that the differences between countries were small
– Average findings were consistent with Ainsworth’s original research
– Secure 65%, Avoidant 21%, Resistant 14%
– Secure attachment was the most common classification in ever country
– Insecure attachment was the next most common (except japan and israel – collectivist cultures)
– Variation within cultures was nearly 15 times greater than the cross-cultural variations.
– Ijzendoorn speculated that this was linked to differences in socio-economic factors.
– 6/8 countries produced findings that were proportionally consistent with Ainsworth & Bell (70).
– Chinese findings revealed the lowest rate of secure attachments (50%) with the remaining children falling into the other categories equally.
– It was concluded that the modest cross-cultural differences reflect the effects of mass media, which portrays similar notions of parenting.
SIMONELLA (2014)
– Simonella conducted a study in Italy to see whether the proportions of babies of different attachment types still matches those found in previous studies.
– The researchers assessed 76 12 month-old babies using the strange situation.
FINDINGS
They found that 50% were secure and 36% insecure-avoidant.
– This is a lower rate of secure attachment than has been found in many studies.
– The researchers suggest this is because increasing numbers of mothers of very young children work long hours and use professional childcare.
– These findings suggest that cultural changes can make a dramatic difference to patterns of secure and insecure attachment
JIN (2012)
Jin et al conducted a study in Korea to compare the proportions of child attachment types in Korea to other studies.
– The strange situation was used to assess 87 children.
FINDINGS
– The overall portions of insecure and secure babies were similar to those in most countries, with most infants be insecure.
– However, more of those classified as insecurely attached were resistant and only one child with avoidant.
– This distribution is similar to the distribution of attachment types founded Japan.
– Since Japan and Korea have quite similar child-rearing styles this is this similarity might be explained in terms of child rearing Style.
CONCLUSIONS
– Secure attachment seems to be the norm in a wide range of Cultures, supporting bowlby’s idea that attachment is innate and universal
– However, the research also clearly shows that cultural practices have an influence on attachment type so it can’t all be innate
EVALUATION OF CULTURAL VARIATION IN ATTACHMENT
STRENGTH
Large Samples
– A strength of combining the results of attachment studies carried out in different countries is that you can end up with a very large sample.
– For example, in the meta-analysis there was a total of nearly 2000 babies and their primary attachment figures.
– Even studies like those of Simonella and Jin had large comparison groups from previous research, although their own sample sizes were smaller.
– This overall sample size is a strength because large sample size increase internal validity by reducing the impact of anomalous research caused by bad methodology or unusual participants
– Therefore, a large sample size from different countries means that these results are more generalisable to the general population as they are more representative.
LIMITATIONS
Culture Bias
– These pieces of research are seen to have culture bias.
– It isn’t just the methods used in attachment research that are not relevant to other cultures, but also the theory because it is so rooted in American culture.
– Rothbaum et al looked in particular at the contrast between American and Japanese culture.
– Bowlby and Ainsworth proposed that infants who are more securely attached go on to develop more socially and emotionally competent children and adults.
– However, this competence is defined in terms of individualisation, being able to explore, being dependent and able to regulate one’s own emotions. I
– In Japan the opposite is true, competence is represented by the inhibition of emotional expression and being group oriented rather than self-oriented.
– Therefore, the high levels of insecure resistant attachment found in Japanese culture during may be explained by cultural bias in attachment theory.
– Additionally these studies are ethnocentric as they judge another culture based on the standard of one’s own culture
Overall findings are misleading
– They used a disproportionately high number of studies that were conducted in the USA (18/32)
– The overall findings would have been distorted by these.
– This means that the apparent consistency between cultures might not genuinely reflect how much attachment types vary between cultures.