Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Takahashi (1990):
Cross-cultural variations
- AIMS
- To consider whether it is appropriate
to use the Strange Situation with
Japanese children
- Is the Strange Situation a valid
procedure for cultures other
than the original one?
- PROCEDURES
- 60 middle-class Japanese
infants and their mothers
- All infants were raised at home
- FINDINGS
- 68% of infants securely attached
- 32% resistant-insecure
- No infants were avoidant-insecure
- Japanese infants much more
disturbed when left alone
- 'infant alone' step stopped for 90% of PPs due
to extreme distress experienced by infants
- CONCLUSIONS
- There are cross-cultural variations
in infants' response to separation
- Japanese infants experience much less separation
- Strange Situation was more than mildly stressful for
Japanese infants than American infants
- Total lack of avoidant-insecure
behaviour may be due to cultural terms
- Japanese children are taught that such
behaviour is impolite and are actively
discourages from such behaviour
- Strange Situation may not be a
valid form of assessment of
attachment for some cultures
- EVALUATION
- Study had limited sample of only
middle-class, home-reared infants
- Cannot generalize findings to
all Japanese infants
- Demonstrates that there are
important cultural and
subcultural differences in
attachment
- Ethical issues
- Infants experienced extreme distress,
which was not the intention of the study
- Ethical guideline: PPs must be protected from
psychological harm as much as possible
- Takahashi did stop
observations when infants
became too distressed
- However, the whole study itself was not
stopped even if extreme distress was very
likely to happen