Cultural Variations in attachment

Culture= The term culture refers to all the rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people.

Collectivistic - Emphasise importance of a group. characterised by extent of sharing - groups live, work together sharing tasks, belongings, child rearing, value interdependence eg Japan and Israel. 

Individualistic - value independence and importance of individual eg USA, UK.

Bowlby sugested that attachment evolved to serve the biological function of protecting the infant (enhancing survival).

If attachment is an innate process, secure attachment should be the optimal form for infants regardless of culture.

If however, secure attachments ae only fond in particular cultures, attachment may not be innately determined, but related to differences in childrearing methods used in different cultures.

studies of cross cultural similarities

Zaire (democratic Republic of congo): Tronick et al. + Israel: Fox = Infants cared for by different women, however still more attached to mother as shown upon reunion. Mother is still primary attachment figure.

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