Cultural differences in attachment

1. Cultural differences in attachment LO: Understand how attachment styles differ within and between cultures

2. Cross Cultural Variation Are we all the same? Consider how you were brought up What do you think could make a difference to our childhood when growing up?

3. What do we mean by Culture? We mean a set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterises a group of people

4. Definition of Cross-cultural variations • Behaviour, attitudes, norms, and values differ across cultures. This affects childrearing styles and beliefs about which qualities should be nurtured. This in turn may affect attachment type.

5. Key Question: How might attachment differ across cultures? Why? An individualisticculture is one which emphasises personal independence and achievement at the expense of group goals, resulting in a strong sense of competition A collectivistculture is one which emphasises family and work goals above individual needs and desires, there is a high degree of interdependence between people

6. Cross Cultural Variation • It is obvious that child rearing practices vary considerably from place to place • Environment • Traditions • Beliefs about children • So, does this result in different attachment patterns? • If attachment is innate, then we would predict these attachment behaviours would be similar i.e. Universal vs. culturally specific

7. Cross-cultural ideas • However, if patterns of attachment differcross-culturally then it is better explained by learnedenvironmental cultural differences rather than being biologically passed down through evolution If Bowlby’s view that attachments have evolvedis true, then you would expect to see similar patterns of attachment cross-culturally

8. study Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) Aimed to examine cultural differences in attachment types They conducted a large scale Meta-Analysisin which they analysed the results of 32 separate studies in 8 countries using Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situation’. In total over 2000 babies were studied. Percentages of children who fell into each attachment type were analysed and compared

9. Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988) Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg wanted to find out: • Whether the proportions of secure (B), insecure avoidant (A) and insecure resistant (C) children were the same in all cultures • How much inter-cultural variation in attachment types exists and also how much intra-cultural variation exists?

10. Highest percentage of securely attached: = Great Britain Lowest percentage of securely attached: = China Highest percentage of insecure - avoidant: = Germany Lowest percentage of insecure - avoidant =Japan Highest percentage of insecure - resistant: =Israel Lowest percentage of insecure - resistant: =Sweden

11. Cross-cultural Research

12. Results of Van IJzendoorn et al

13. Van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)

14. Exam Question: Summarise the table below (6 marks)

15. Why these results? Great Britain and the US are individualistic – we encourage independence and not being reliant on others, hence the exploration behaviour. Many children are used to being in day care but not yet used to strangers, which could explain the avoidant behaviour on separation

16. Why these results? Japan is a collectivist culture. Japanese children are very rarely left by their mother. So the distress they show when she leaves is probably more due to shock than it is to insecure attachment. The distress they show when left alone with the stranger is also more likely to be due to absence of the mother.

17. Why these results? The German study highlights a high percentage of avoidant behaviour, typical of independent children. This is not surprising given that Grossmann et al (1985) say that German parents seek ‘independent, non-clingy infants, who do not make demands on parents, but obey their commands.’

18. Differences within cultures In 2 Japanese studies, one had no Type A whereas the other one had 20% - this is an example of INTRA-CULTURAL VARIATION This was approx.. 1 ½ x more than CROSS CULTURAL VARIATIONS

19. Differences within a Culture This demonstrates that it is an over-simplification to assume that all children are brought up in exactly the same way within a country or culture

20. Based on these results… • Type B SECURE attachments are most common regardless of culture • There are different types within cultures suggesting that it is an over simplification to assume that children are brought up in the same way in a particular country / culture SS may not be best tool for cross-cultural research as it assumes behaviour always has same significance as in US/UK

21. What do the differences in attachment suggest? Cross cultural data would seem to indicate significant differences in attachment types both across and within different cultures. This would appear to undermine Bowlby and Ainsworth’s beliefs that attachment is universal, that is, an evolutionary trait which owes more to nature than to nurture. However, it could be that it is the measurement technique rather than the theory of attachment which is culture-bound. Perhaps there was an imposed etic measure is ethnocentric – based upon western child rearing ideals

22. It is important not to judge other cultures from our own perspective (imposed etic) • Japan – children rarely separated from mother – find SSC very stressful • ‘Avoidant’ behaviour very rude – actively discouraged • Germany – greater personal distance is the norm; proximity seeking not encouraged

23. Other Research in Cross Cultural Variations Grossman and Grossman (1991) Aim: to see if the Strange Situation can be used to explore attachment types in German infants and to explore the relationship between maternal sensitivity and attachment type Method: 49 German families, Strange Situation, measured attachment type Findings: Most infants were insecurely attached (anxious avoidant) rather than securely attached. If the mothers were sensitive to their child’s needs, the child was more likely to have a secure attachment. Conclusion: the different attachment types compared to Ainsworth’s findings may be due to different child-rearing practices. German children are typically taught to be independent so may be more used to being left by their parents and this led to them being classified as being insecurely attached.

24. Other Research in Cross Cultural Variations Takahashi (1990) Takahashi (1990) compared attachment types in 60 middle class Japanese infants aged under 12 months with American infants using the strange situation. The findings were that 68% of Japanese infants were securely attached, 32% were insecure-resistant, and no infants were insecure-avoidant. When the Japanese infants were left alone they were so distressed that the ‘leaving the infant alone’ stage of the strange situation had to be abandoned, however if they had not been so distressed then as many as 80% of Japanese infants would have been classed as securely attached.One question that Takahashi’s study raises is why there were no insecure-avoidant children. Japanese cultural values make it extremely impolite to avoid interacting with other people and children are taught this from a very early age, which could account for the lack of insecure-avoidant infants in the study. A second question is why infants were so extremely distressed when left alone. Japanese infants spend almost 100% of their time in contact with their mothers for the first 2 years of their lives. They are carried around on the mother’s back, and usually sleep and bathe with their parents. The strange situation measures separation distress, but as Japanese children are hardly ever separated from they mothers then being left alone is extremely unusual for them and leads to extreme distress that the strange situation incorrectly judges as insecure-resistant behaviour.

25. Theory or technique that’s flawed? Grossman and Grossman (1991) suggest attachment has different meanings in different cultures. What is called ‘avoidant’ in Britain and America might be called ‘independent’ in Germany. As independence in children is valued more highly in Germany than in Britain or America this may explain the higher proportion of type A attachment. Takahashi (1990) has suggested that differences in maternal behaviour make the ‘strange situation technique’ inappropriate in certain cultures. For example, Japanese children had no opportunity to show avoidant behaviour in the final stage of the strange situation as mothers inevitably went straight to them. It is not ok in the Japanese culture to leave a child crying.

26. Simonella (2014) – conducted a study using the strange situation in Italy. Only 50% of infants were securely attached. See GHG book for additional information – The researchers suggest this change could be due to increasing numbers of mothers working longer hours.

27. BUT! • Many studies have limited samples • Cannot claim to be representative of each culture • Probably more variation within cultures than between them

28. In Conclusion ... • There is variation both between and within cultures • SS may not be best tool for cross-cultural research as it assumes behaviour always has same significance as in US/UK Findings suggest attachment has some universal features

29. Task Check you have tried some apply it questions from GHG spread