Types of attachment and cultural variation

a strange situation

1970

a - Ainsworth provided a way of measuring attachment of infants (12-18 months old).

p - It is a controlled observation and consists of seven 3-minute episodes & is known as the strange situation (SS):

1. Caregiver & infant enter lab, a room where there are attractive toys & comfortable furniture.

2. Stranger joins

3. Caregiver leaves

4. Caregiver returns, stranger leaves

5. Caregiver leaves

6. Stranger returns

7. Caregiver returns, stranger leaves

The key behaviours recorded are:

• Separation anxiety- the unease felt by the infant when left by caregiver

• The infants willingness to explore

• Stranger anxiety- the infant's response to the stranger

• Reunion behaviour- the way the caregiver was greeted on return

c - There are individual differences in attachment but most American children are securely attached. Appears to be an association between mothers' behaviour & attachment type- suggesting mother's behaviour determines attachment type.

a strange situation: findings -Type A

Avoidant (22%)- infant is not concerned by mother's absence & avoids contact with her at reunion. Does not prefer mother to the stranger.

a strange situation: findings -Type B

Securely attached (66%)- infant explores room when mother is present, is perturbed when she leaves but quickly comforted when she returns. Prefers mother to the stranger. Only this type is thought to lead to healthy emotional & social development.

a strange situation: findings -Type C

Resistant/Ambivalent (12%)- infant explores very little when mother present & is wary of the stranger; very upset when mother leaves but angry when she returns, both seeking & rejecting contact.

strange situation evaluation summary

• high test-retest reliability

• internal validity

• population validity

• imposed etic

• ethical issues

strange situation evaluation - high test retest reliability

high test-retest reliability: when tested at later date most babies remain in same category. E.g. one study in Germany found that 78% of children were classified the same when tested at 1 and at 6 years and when changes occur they are linked to changes in the form of care e.g. changes in family structure. Therefore, attachment type is consistent.

strange situation evaluation - internal validity

• However, there are other studies that challenge the Internal validity of the SS. The procedure may not be measuring what it is supposed to measure.Therefore, the SS may not be testing attachment type but something else:

• For example, the behaviour of an infant in the SS may reflect the temperament hypothesis. Some infants may be born more independent or more friendly and thus their behaviour is due to innate personality characteristics, not attachment type. It may also be that some infants are more vulnerable to stress and thus respond differently in the SS.

• Another reason why the SS may lack internal validity is that behaviour in the SS reflects previous experience with separation from the mother and whether the infant is used to strangers. This idea is supported by research showing Japanese babies appear more resistant as they are rarely separated from their mother. They are therefore very upset when the mother leaves and very confused and angry when she returns. Therefore, the behaviour may reflect a child's previous experience rather than their attachment type.

• Demand characteristics of the MOTHER may also reduce internal validity. The mother is aware that she is being observed with her child & knows part of the aim of the study. She may therefore think that she is supposed to be interacting with the baby and do so more than normal. She might also do this due to social desirability bias because she wants to be seen as a good mother.

strange situation evaluation - population validity

The SS has been criticised for lacking population validity. The original study used middle class infants, therefore it may not to generalise to other social classes. The original study was also ethnocentric as all Ps were American. This means that findings may not generalise to other cultures (see next lesson on cross-cultural differences in attachment).

strange situation evaluation - imposed etic

Another criticism is that the SS was designed for assessing attachment in American infants and may not be valid for assessing attachment in other cultures. This is called an Imposed etic approach (use of a technique developed in one culture to study another). This is a problem because different cultures have different norms and therefore the procedure may not translate across cultures. There is a danger that USA is considered normal and other cultures that are different considered abnormal, when in fact the tool is invalid Therefore, the SS lacks cross-cultural validity (see next lesson on cross-cultural differences in attachment)

strange situation evaluation - ethical issues

Ethical issues: No protection from psychological harm. Some babies (secure & resistant) are seen to get upset in the Strange Situation, this is also upsetting for the mother. Mothers may also feel uncomfortable/embarrassed if their child is rated as insecure.

cross-cultural differences in attachment

Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) have compared results of the SS for different cultures. They used a meta-analysis. They looked through various databases to find studies on attachment. They decided to only select studies that used the strange situation. Studies were excluded if they included special groups such as Downs's syndrome or twins & those involving fewer than 35 infants. They examined data from 2000 strange situations which came from 32 studies across 8 countries.

cross-cultural differences in attachment findings

They found striking similarities between cultures with secure being the most common type (overall average 65%). Avoidant was the next most common (particularly common in Germany - 35%) in all countries, except Japan and Israe which had high levels of resistant attachment. Therefore, there is little variation in attachment between cultures. However, they did find variation within a culture was 1.5 times as much as variation between cultures.

cross-curltural differences in attachment - conclusion

Global pattern seems to be similar to US with secure being the norm. These findings support the idea that secure attachment is important for healthy development. Cross cultural similarities may be explained by the effects of mass media on parenting views

cross-cultural differences in attachment evaluation summary

• imposed etic

• internal validity

• methodological problems

cross-cultural differences in attachment evaluation - imposed etic

• The meta-analysis only includes studies which used the SS. A problem with this is that the SS was designed for assessing attachment in American infants and may not be valid for assessing attachment in other cultures. This is known as Imposed etic (use of a technique developed in one culture to study another). This is a problem because different cultures have different norms and therefore the SS may not be appropriate for measuring attachment in other cultures. There is a danger that USA is considered normal and other cultures that are different considered abnormal, when in fact the SS itself is an invalid measuring tool of attachment. Therefore, the SS lacks cross-cultural validity.

• Israel had more resistant & less avoidant than US. These children were raised on a kibbutz & :. saw few strangers but were used to separation from the mother. The fact that they were not used to strangers may account for the large % of resistant, where their anxiety was not shown when the mother left but when the stranger entered.

• Japanese studies found more resistant but very low avoidant, similar to Israel but probably for very different reasons. Japanese mothers rarely leave their infants so the SS may have been particularly stressful when the mother left. Such children are more likely to show resistant behaviour. The Japanese children's resistant behaviour was more likely to be due to the mother leaving than the stranger arriving.

• German infants showed very large numbers of avoidant. German culture requires keeping interpersonal distance between parents & children. Children are encouraged to be independent and not clingy. The high % of avoidant is likely to reflect the ethos of encouraging independence rather than children being insecure.

cross-cultural differences in attachment evaluation - internal validity

• Internal validity: The meta-analysis only included studies that had used the strange situation to measure attachment types. However, there are concerns that the SS lacks internal validity. The procedure may not be measuring what it is supposed to measure. Therefore, the meta-analysis may not be making conclusions about attachment type but something else:

• For example, the behaviour of an infant in the SS may reflect the temperament hypothesis. Some infants may be born more independent or more friendly and thus their behaviour is due to innate personality characteristics, not attachment type. It may also be that some infants are more vulnerable to stress and thus respond differently in the SS.

• Another reason why the SS may lack internal validity is that behaviour in the SS reflects previous experience with separation from the mother and whether the infant is used to strangers. This idea is supported by research showing Japanese babies appear more resistant as they are rarely separated from their mother.
  They are therefore very upset when the mother leaves and very confused and angry when she returns. Therefore, the behaviour may reflect a child's previous experience rather than their attachment type.

• Demand characteristics of the MOTHER may also reduce internal validity. The mother is aware that she is being observed with her child & knows part of the aim of the study. She may therefore think that she is supposed to be interacting with the baby and do so more than normal. She might also do this due to social desirability bias because she wants to be seen as a good mother.
  Therefore, if there are concerns about the internal validity of the SS, this meta-analysis is not valid

cross-cultural differences in attachment evaluation - methodological problems

Methodological problems with the meta-analysis: A criticism is that there are methodological problems with the research because half of the studies included in the meta-analysis were done in America. Therefore, the overall averages are likely to be biased and not representative of all cultures. Furthermore, the sample sizes in some countries were too small to make safe generalisations about an entire country, e.g. only 36 Chinese infants were observed but Chinese has a huge population. Therefore, the study may lack population validity.

cross-cultural differences in attachment - evidence that the SS may lack cross-cultural validity

Israel had more resistant & less avoidant than US. These children were raised on a kibbutz & : saw few strangers but were used to separation from the mother. The fact that they were not used to strangers may account for the large % of resistant, where their anxiety was not shown when the mother left but when the stranger entered

Japanese studies found more resistant but very low avoidant, similar to Israel but probably for very different reasons. Japanese mothers rarely leave their infants so the SS may have been particularly stressful when the mother left. Such children are more likely to show resistant behaviour. The Japanese children's resistant behaviour was more likely to be due to the mother leaving than the stranger arriving.

German infants showed very large numbers of avoidant. German culture requires keeping interpersonal distance between parents & children. Children are encouraged to be independent and not clingy. The high % of avoidant is likely to reflect the ethos of encouraging independence rather than children being insecure.