limitations to using the strange situation in cross cultural research

Rothaum- imposed etic

imposing one cultures ideas of a secure attachment on other cultures
can lead to wrong classification e.g. Japan- in American indepependence is rewarded but in Japan children are taught to be dependent making it more normal to be type C in Japan

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more variation within a country than between countries
Germany has more type A children in the north but in the south attachments are more type B and C like the american study

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strange situation assumes that certain behaviours indicate certain attachment types such as happy to explore indicating type B
However this may be invalid. type B children behave differently in other countries. type B Japanese children aren't encoraged to explore but to stay close to their mother
Takahashi carried out the strange situation in japan and found that children got so distressed that 90% of experiments had to be stopped, this shows that Japanese children have a different type of type B attachment behaviour

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