Cultural variations - Van Ijzendoorn

Which technique did Van Ijzendoorn study & who originally designed this?

Strange Situation - Ainsworth

What two types of cultural variations did Van Ijzendoorn study?

Inter-cultural and intra-cultural

What is the difference between inter-cultural and intra-cultural variations?

• Inter-cultural = differences between cultures

• Intra-cultural = differences within a culture

What technique did Van Ijzendoorn adopt?

Meta-analysis

How many studies were examined and from how many cultures?

32 studies from 8 cultures

What did Van Ijzendoorn find was the dominant attachment type?

Secure

Which attachment type(s) varied across the different countries?

Insecure-avoidant & insecure-resistant

Name two countries that had a high rate of insecure-resistant attachments compared with Ainsworth’s original findings

Israel & Japan

Which country had a higher rate of insecure-avoidant attachment types than other countries in the sample?

Germany

Who completed a study in Japan & found different rates within the country?

Takahashi

What differences did Takahashi identify?

In one study, 20% were insecure-avoidant & in another, the rate was 0%

What other difference did Van Ijzendoorn find from Ainsworth?

Sensitivity may not be as significant as Ainsworth proposed

A strength of Van Ijzendoorn’s work is that it represented what two categories of cultures?

Collectivist and individualistic

What was an advantage of Ainsworth’s technique for a meta-analysis?

It involved a standardised procedure, so easier to compare results without extraneous variables

How many children were studied & why is than an advantage?

2000 - increases internal validity

Why else might it be possible to eliminate methodological differences when investigating intra-cultural variations?

The same researcher was used (e.g. Takahashi conducted studies on different samples)

Why can we not draw universal conclusions about inter-cultural variations from Van Ijzendoorn’s study?

• They looked at differences between countries & not cultures

• African & South American samples would also be required

What is a problem of using the Strange Situation in that findings could be analysed in a biased manner due to the researcher’s own cultural beliefs?

Imposed etic

What term can be used to show that the Strange Situation may not be suitable for other cultures?

Ethnocentric

What type of data was collected by Van Ijzendoorn’s study & why is this problematic?

Secondary, so the procedure may not necessarily have been standardised across the 32 studies used

Give an examples of how there were inconsistent numbers of studies from each country

Only 1 study in the UK and China, whilst the USA had 18 studies analysed

The sample sizes in some countries had been criticised. Give an example

China was based on a study of just 36 infants

What could be another explanation from some of the intra-cultural variations identified?

Socio-economic differences in the sample

Who argued that the Strange Situation is actually measuring anxiety & that temperament of the child needs considering?

Kagan