Outline and evaluate research into cultural variation in attachment.
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg conducted a meta-analysis examining the findings of 32
strange situation studies of attachment that were carried out in 8 different countries, which
include UK, US, Sweden, Japan, China, Holland, Israel and Germany and 1990 children were
studied. The researchers looked at the proportion of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure
resistant attachment across these countries and looked at the differences within the same
countries to get an idea of variation within a culture. They found that secure attachment
was generally the most common Britain 75% and China 50% and Insecure Resistant
generally least common in Britain 3% and 30% in Japan and Insecure Avoidant was most
common in Germany and least common in Japan.
Takahashi (1990) replicated the Strange Situation with 60 middle class Japanese infants &
mothers using the same standardized procedure and behavioral categories. Takahashi’s
observation revealed distinct cultural differences in how the infants responded to the 8
stages of the procedure. The findings were as follows: 0% insecure-avoidant. Infants became
severely distressed in the “infant alone step”; this situation was quite unnatural and broke
cultural norms for the infants 32% insecure-resistant and 68% secure and 90% of infant-
alone steps had to be stopped due to excessive infant anxiety.
A strength of combining the results of attachment studies carried out in different countries
it that researchers can end up with a very large sample. For example, Van Ijzendoorn meta-
analysis there was a total of nearly 2000 babies and their primary attachment figure.
Therefore, this is a strength because large samples increase internal validity by reducing the
impacts of anomalous results caused by bad methodology.
A limitation of Van Ijzendoorn study is that the strange situation method may be biased
towards American/British culture. For example, this is as the strange situation was designed
by American researcher Ainsworth based on a British theory Bowlby and thus this theory
may not be applicable to other cultures. This is because in the strange situation a secure
attachment was seen normal and desirable, whereas lack of separation anxiety and a lack of
pleasure on reunion indicate an insecure attachment which was not desirable. However, in
Germany this ‘insecure attachment’ behaviour may be seen as a good thing encouraging
independence rather than avoidance and hence not a sign of insecurity within that cultural
context. Thus, this a limitation of Van Ijzendoorn study as trying to apply findings and values
from one culture to another culture may not translate into the same meaning and is an
imposed etic, which disregards the notion on cultural emic. Therefore, using cross cultural
comparisons using the strange situation may lack validity as they are not measuring true
attachment behaviour across cultures but only western ideals of secure attachment.
A limitation of Takahashi research is that it could be unethical. For example, It could be
argued that Takahashi’s research was unethical as the harm that the procedure caused
exceeded what infants would be exposed to in their day-to-day lives meaning that it
exceeded undue risk. As Japanese infants are rarely separated from their primary caregivers,
the infant-alone step induced stress that they would not normally encounter and so the
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg conducted a meta-analysis examining the findings of 32
strange situation studies of attachment that were carried out in 8 different countries, which
include UK, US, Sweden, Japan, China, Holland, Israel and Germany and 1990 children were
studied. The researchers looked at the proportion of secure, insecure avoidant and insecure
resistant attachment across these countries and looked at the differences within the same
countries to get an idea of variation within a culture. They found that secure attachment
was generally the most common Britain 75% and China 50% and Insecure Resistant
generally least common in Britain 3% and 30% in Japan and Insecure Avoidant was most
common in Germany and least common in Japan.
Takahashi (1990) replicated the Strange Situation with 60 middle class Japanese infants &
mothers using the same standardized procedure and behavioral categories. Takahashi’s
observation revealed distinct cultural differences in how the infants responded to the 8
stages of the procedure. The findings were as follows: 0% insecure-avoidant. Infants became
severely distressed in the “infant alone step”; this situation was quite unnatural and broke
cultural norms for the infants 32% insecure-resistant and 68% secure and 90% of infant-
alone steps had to be stopped due to excessive infant anxiety.
A strength of combining the results of attachment studies carried out in different countries
it that researchers can end up with a very large sample. For example, Van Ijzendoorn meta-
analysis there was a total of nearly 2000 babies and their primary attachment figure.
Therefore, this is a strength because large samples increase internal validity by reducing the
impacts of anomalous results caused by bad methodology.
A limitation of Van Ijzendoorn study is that the strange situation method may be biased
towards American/British culture. For example, this is as the strange situation was designed
by American researcher Ainsworth based on a British theory Bowlby and thus this theory
may not be applicable to other cultures. This is because in the strange situation a secure
attachment was seen normal and desirable, whereas lack of separation anxiety and a lack of
pleasure on reunion indicate an insecure attachment which was not desirable. However, in
Germany this ‘insecure attachment’ behaviour may be seen as a good thing encouraging
independence rather than avoidance and hence not a sign of insecurity within that cultural
context. Thus, this a limitation of Van Ijzendoorn study as trying to apply findings and values
from one culture to another culture may not translate into the same meaning and is an
imposed etic, which disregards the notion on cultural emic. Therefore, using cross cultural
comparisons using the strange situation may lack validity as they are not measuring true
attachment behaviour across cultures but only western ideals of secure attachment.
A limitation of Takahashi research is that it could be unethical. For example, It could be
argued that Takahashi’s research was unethical as the harm that the procedure caused
exceeded what infants would be exposed to in their day-to-day lives meaning that it
exceeded undue risk. As Japanese infants are rarely separated from their primary caregivers,
the infant-alone step induced stress that they would not normally encounter and so the
