Cross cultural variations

                                                Cross cultural variations

Bowlby believed that attachments evolved and had a survival value. If this is true then attachments should be similar across different cultures regardless of child-rearing styles.

Cross cultural studies (-comparison of findings from people of different cultures) using the strange situation have shown differences both within and between cultures.

Key words:

•       Culture: the set of behaviours an beliefs that characterises a group of people, for example a nationality

•       Cross – cultural study: a study that compares a psychological variable such as attachment in people from two or more countries.               

•        Cultural - bound: a criticism of a theory or procedure based on the idea that it works well only in certain cultures.

Takahashi (1990)

Studied 60 middle class Japanese infants aged 1 year.

What they found:

Ø  68% Securely attached

Ø  32% Resistant insecure

Ø  0% Avoidant insecure

This showed that the majority of Japanese children were securely attached. However, during the study the Japanese infants were much more disturbed about being left alone. The ‘infants alone’ step was stopped for 90% of the infants because of distress.

Conclusion: Overall, the majority of…