Cultural Differences
● Imposed etic:
○ Where a culture-specific idea is wrongly imposed on another culture
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
● 2 main types of cultures
○ Individualist cultures: value independence with each working to their own individual goals – e.g., US and
Europe (Western cultures)
○ Collectivist cultures: value cooperation with each working towards the family or group goals – e.g., Japan
and Israel (Eastern cultures)
● Aim:
○ to investigate the types of attachment across cultures and to see how the three main attachment styles
applied
○ to investigate if attachment styles are universal across cultures, or culturally specific
● procedure:
○ used the strange situation
○ observed only mother-infant pairs
○ Classified infants into one of the attachment types
○ Using meta-analysis (statistical technique) they calculated the average percentage for the different
attachment styles in each country
○ The choice of studies also excluded any identifying special groups of children (e.g. Down syndrome) and
any less than 35 pairs and any using children older than 2 years
○ Total meta-analysis included 32 study samples from 8 countries
● Findings:
○ Secure attachment was the most common type of attachment in all cultures
○ Lowest percentage of secure attachment was shown in China
○ Highest percentage of secure attachment was shown in Great Britain
○ Showed that individualistic countries that support independence (Germany) had high levels of anxious
avoidant
○ Showed that culturally close/collectivist countries (Japan) had quite high levels of ambivalent resistant
Country Number of studies % of secure % of insecure-avoidant % of insecure-resistant
Great Britain 1 75 22 3
Germany 3 57 35 8
Netherlands 4 67 26 7
Sweden 1 74 22 4
Japan 2 68 5 27
Israel 2 64 7 29
United States 18 65 21 14
China 1 50 25 25
Mean 65 21 14
● Conclusion
○ Overall consistency in secure attachment = may be universal (innate) characteristics that underpin infant
and caregiver interactions
○ Significant variations of insecure attachments = universally limited
○ Implications include the linking of the variation in attachment to child-rearing practices and
environmental factors
○ Germany study highlights a high percentage of avoidant behaviour – typical of independent children
● Imposed etic:
○ Where a culture-specific idea is wrongly imposed on another culture
Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg (1988)
● 2 main types of cultures
○ Individualist cultures: value independence with each working to their own individual goals – e.g., US and
Europe (Western cultures)
○ Collectivist cultures: value cooperation with each working towards the family or group goals – e.g., Japan
and Israel (Eastern cultures)
● Aim:
○ to investigate the types of attachment across cultures and to see how the three main attachment styles
applied
○ to investigate if attachment styles are universal across cultures, or culturally specific
● procedure:
○ used the strange situation
○ observed only mother-infant pairs
○ Classified infants into one of the attachment types
○ Using meta-analysis (statistical technique) they calculated the average percentage for the different
attachment styles in each country
○ The choice of studies also excluded any identifying special groups of children (e.g. Down syndrome) and
any less than 35 pairs and any using children older than 2 years
○ Total meta-analysis included 32 study samples from 8 countries
● Findings:
○ Secure attachment was the most common type of attachment in all cultures
○ Lowest percentage of secure attachment was shown in China
○ Highest percentage of secure attachment was shown in Great Britain
○ Showed that individualistic countries that support independence (Germany) had high levels of anxious
avoidant
○ Showed that culturally close/collectivist countries (Japan) had quite high levels of ambivalent resistant
Country Number of studies % of secure % of insecure-avoidant % of insecure-resistant
Great Britain 1 75 22 3
Germany 3 57 35 8
Netherlands 4 67 26 7
Sweden 1 74 22 4
Japan 2 68 5 27
Israel 2 64 7 29
United States 18 65 21 14
China 1 50 25 25
Mean 65 21 14
● Conclusion
○ Overall consistency in secure attachment = may be universal (innate) characteristics that underpin infant
and caregiver interactions
○ Significant variations of insecure attachments = universally limited
○ Implications include the linking of the variation in attachment to child-rearing practices and
environmental factors
○ Germany study highlights a high percentage of avoidant behaviour – typical of independent children
