Natalie
Discuss reaserch into cultural variations in attachment (12 marks)
Many different psychologists have carried out reaserch into cultural variations in attachment. Van Ijzendoor and Kroonenberg conducted a meta analysis using the findings of 32 different studdies into attachment. They found that in German infants were mostly avoidant and in Japan and Israel infants were more resistantly attached which shows a difference in attachment accross cultures. However, they also found out that the United States had the most securely attached infants which is a similarity as Ainsworth found that a secure attachment was the most common. Takahashi's reaserch also found a differencein attachment across cultures. Middle class Japanese infants and mothers were studdied. They showed high rates of insecure-resistant attachement, the opposit to what Ainsworth found. Grossman and Grossman also found that German infants were generally classified as insecurely attached which supports the idea that there are cultural variations in attachment because insecurely attached is usually the minority. Fox found a similarity in attachment across cultures by studdying children in a children's home. It was found that infants had a greater attachment to their mothers, despite spending most of their time with nurses. This supports the idea of monotropy and that attachment is innate as Bowlby suggested. Tronik et al also found support for monotropy and primary attachment figure in other cultures. They studdied African Tribes where infants were brestfead by different women but always slept with their mother at night and when the infants were 6 months they still showed their mother as the primary attachement figure.
