Psychology: Cross Cultural Differences, attachments.

What is a culture?
-The BELIEFS/CUSTOMS that a group of people share

What is a subculture?
-Group within society that shares practices with their CULTURE yet has SOME SPECIAL DIFFERENT CHARACTERISTICS within this.

What did GROSSMAN AND GROSSMAN DISCOVER?
-German infants more INSECURELY ATTACHED, German culture of DISTANCE.
-->this doesnt mean they are INSECURELY ATTACHED

What did KROONENBURG and IJENDOORN discover?
-They carried out 32 studies in 8 different countries
-Their META-ANALYSIS showed consistency: same INTERACTIONS due to MEDIA INFULENCE

Error with Cross cultural comparions?
-SSR may not mean the same thing in different countries/cultures-->lacks validity
-We arent aware about HOW MANY INFANTS WERE USED in the study, may be small sample size.

STUDY OF JAPANESE CHILDREN BY TAKAHASHI.

Aim: To see whether the SSC was appropriate for Japanese children, testing whether SSC is a valid procedure for cultures other than its original condition.

Procedure:
-60 Middle class Japanese infant/mothers, Strange situation task took place.

Findings:
-68% were TYPE B: SECURELY ATTACHED
-0% were TYPE A: AVOIDANT INSECURE
-32% were TYPE C:RESISTANT INSECURE
-ALSO: 90% of left alone conditions were terminated as infants became disturbed

Conclusion:
1)Cross-cultural differences may be due to the fact that JAPANESE CHILDREN ARE CLOSER TO THEIR PARENTS. SSC was more stressful in this study.
2)Lack of AVOIDANT INSECURE may be due to the fact that the Japanese reguard this as rude behaviour
3)SSR doesnt mean the same thing for Japanese children as it does for american

Criticism:
-Research using children must be careful, e.g. psychological harm caused to the child.
-Carried out on Middle class not representative culture bias, but REPRESENTS CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
-TAKAHASHI: SENSITIVITY: stopped study with distressed children
--->LACK OF SENSITIVITY: the experiment didnt stop, he carried on overall study.