Cultural variations in attachment

What does Bowlby’s theory propose, regarding culture?

That attachment evolved to provide the biological function of infant protection, thus enhancing survival.

If attachment is a biological and innate process, secure attachment should be the optimal form for all humans regardless of cultural variations.

What was the aim of Kroonenberg and Van Ijzendoorn’s 1988 study of cultural variations?

To see if inter-cultural differences did exist.

Also wanted to see if intra-cultural differences existed - differences within the same culture

What was the Procedure of van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg’s 1988 study of cultural variations?

They conducted a meta analysis of the findings from 32 studies of attachment behaviour.

The studies examined over 2000 Strange Situation classifications in 8 different countries.

What is a meta analysis?

Collating findings from multiple studies about a part of psychology.

Can create good conclusions, but generalises findings.

What were the findings of the study?

Secure attachment was the most common classification in every country (65%), followed by insecure-avoidant (21%) then insecure-resistant (14%).

Western countries had a higher percentage of secure-attachments than non-western countries.

Findings of the study - stats

China had the lowest percentage of secure attachments - 50%

Germany had the highest percentage of insecure-avoidant attachments. Japan had the lowest percentage of this - 5%

Israel had the highest percentage of insecure-resistant attachment - 29%. Lowest was Britain - 3%

What were the conclusions of the study?

The global pattern for attachment type was very similar to the US results.

Secure attachment was the ‘norm’ in all countries. Supports the idea that secure attachment is best for healthy development.

These cultural similarities support the view that attachment is an innate and biological process.

What does this research show?

That there are differences in patterns of attachment that can be related to differences in cultural attitudes and practices.

Positive eval

Disproves Bowlby - Bowlby said that attachment was an innate mechanism, unmodified by culture.

Koonenberg and Van Ijzendoorn concluded that cultural similarities are because of the effects of mass media - the whole world is exposed to similar influences.

Negative eval

Individual samples aren’t representative of an entire culture. There are lots of subcultures within counties. Therefore the study compares individual cultures but not countries. This wasn’t considered in the study.

Cultural bias - America and Japan have different understandings of secure attachments as their culture is different.

Childcare practices should be related to individual cultural values.