culture variations

culture in attachment

if attachment links to survival, it should be that optimal forms of attachments are found within all cultures.

but, if certain attachments are found in some cultures and not others it may suggest attachment is not innate but dependent on cultural factors like childrearing methods.

van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg procedure

conducted a study to look at proportions of attachment across a range of countries

used meta analysis on 32 studies across 8 countries and 1990 children

van ijzendoorn and kroonenberg findings

secure was most common across al countries

75% in britain vs 50% in china

insecure resistant was least common in most cultures except israel and japan

german insecure avoidant and resistant were slightly higher

variation within cultures was 1.5 times greater than variation between cultures

simonelli et al

italy

76, 12 month olds using strange situation

secure=50%, insecure avoidant=36%

suggests mothers working long hours and using prof childcare

jin et al

compared proportions of attachment types in korea to others

87 children

had more insecure resistant

grossman and grossman

german infants- more likely insecurely attached

german cultures value keeping interpersonal distance between parents and children to encourage independence

weakness of ijzendoor and kroonenberg- didnt study cultures

they studied japan and usa, within each culture there may be many subcultures each of which have their own childcare practices. one study in a japanese urban area had similar attachment distributions as western cultures, whereas rural areas had higher amounts of insecure resistant attachments.

suggetss that great caution should be taken when using term cultural variations as studies are not necessarily representative of entire country

reduces validity, making whole country interventions for attachement harder

weakness-methodolical issues

strange situation used was created by an american so may not be relevant to other cultures

eg willingness to explore is the sign of a secure attachment in the west but in japan, dependence rather than independence would be a sign of secure

suggests use of SS in other cultures may have been inappropriate as unable to fully capture attachment behaviour of all cultures.

reduces credibility of research

limited use in interventions as insecure may reflect average attachment behaviour in the culture

weakness-based on western culture

bowlby and ainsworth both make use of continuity hypothesis. in the west this competence is defined as being independent and regulation emotions whereas in eastern culture, competence is defined as inhibiting emotional expression and being group orientated

suggests cultural variations in attachment maybjust reflect cultural bias in attachment theory.

reduces usefulness of cultural variations research