Specification: Cultural variations in attachment, including van Ijzendoorn. 

Conclusion: Since the global trend seems to reflect the US norm of secure attachment being the most common, it adds weight to the argument that secure attachment is the optimal attachment type for healthy development. 

Cultural Similarities: Tronick et al. (1992)

The Efe tribe, located in Zaire, Africa, live in extended family groups where the infants are looked after and even breastfed by different women within the social group. However, infants tend to sleep with their own mothers at night. Although the childrearing practices differ greatly from the Western norms, the infants still showed a preference for a primary attachment figure at six months old, supporting van Izjendoorn and Kroonenberg’s main findings that secure attachment is the most common globally. 

Cultural Differences: Grossman and Grossman (1991)

In German culture, child rearing practices favour independence from a young age whereby infants do not seek interpersonal contact with their parents. As a result, infants from this country appear to be insecurely attached in the strange situation since they do not seek proximity to their mothers or joy upon reunion. 

Evaluation of van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg (1988)

 A criticism of van Ijzendoorn and Kroonerberg’s research is that they may have been comparing countries and not, in fact, cultures. For example, they compared Great Britain with Israel in their metaanalysis. Within each country there may be many different subcultures, each with their own unique ways of rearing children. Interestingly, the researchers noted that variance within countries was far greater than between countries. It therefore stands to reason that they did, in fact, collect data on subcultures within the countries they investigated rather than the whole nation. 

One weakness of van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s research is that their sample was biased. 27/32 of the studies in their meta-analysis were carried out in individualistic cultures. Therefore, their results are biased towards individualistic culture norms and values so we cannot accurately generalise the results to collectivist cultures, lowering the population validity of the findings. That being said, the overall sample size of over 1,900 infants is a strength as much research in this area use comparatively smaller numbers. 

 An issue with van Ijzendoorn & Kroonenberg’s research is that the strange situation methodology was developed in America and therefore the results may be culturally biased. Ainsworth’s strange situation may be more suitable for use solely with Western cultures as it reflects their values and norms. Using a methodology of assessment beyond the sample for which it was designed is referred to as an imposed etic. This matters because attachment behaviours mean different things for different cultures and so the results may not be valid when used with samples from non-Western cultures.  

There is an alternative explanation for universal attachment which does not consider the effect of culture. According to Bowlby, attachment occurs globally due to innate mechanisms which aid survival of the infant. This is a biologically driven process which occurs in the initial months after birth and is not modified by the culture in which one is brought up. However, van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg counter this argument and suggest that some of the similarities seen cross-culturally could be due to mass exposure to similar media forums such as television rather than any inborn tendencies.