Download Attachment and Culture

Culture and attachment: How
culture might effect the
attachment process
Robin Goodwin,
Kinga Kunowska
Brunel University, London
Culture and attachment: A broad
overview
• We can several kinds of relationship between
culture and attachment, and the consequences of
attachment.
• These make different assumptions about
– The universality of particular parenting experiences.
– The impact of those parenting experiences on
attachment.
– The relationship between attachment and ‘other things’
(e.g. personality, relationship schemata, love styles)
Universalist approach
Parenting
Attachment
Relationships
Universalists..
• Freud (1914): Attachment love
• Bowlby’s work (e.g. Bowlby, 1959)
• Ainsworth et al (1978): universal relationship
between mothering and security
• Early attachment experiences influence general
relationship schemata that then affect adult “love
schemata” (e.g. Shaver & Hazan, 1993)
• Doherty et al (1994): attachment styles more
important than culture in shaping love styles.
Interviewed Hawaiian students from 4 ethnic
groups. Found attachment better predictor than IC.
Culture as moderator of
childhood attachment
Cultural
values
Parenting
Attachment
Relationships
Culture as moderator of
childhood attachment
• May be cross-cultural differences in proportions of
both childhood and adult attachment styles (e.g.
Sprecher et al, 2004).
• May reflect cultural differences in child-rearing
practices. Parenting can be seen as “an evolved
answer to adaptive problems” (Keller, 2002)
• Note: Most work assumes that the parenting
experience  attachment link culturally consistent
• ‘Cultural’ values (e.g. IC) can also emerge from
culturally rooted early childhood experiences
(Keller, 2002).
Attachment as an adaptation
Cultural
events
Attachment
styles
Relationships
Attachment as an adaptation
• But maybe adult attachment styles are influenced
by more than parenting? Can “internal working
models” be subject to fairly rapid transitions,
independent of parenting experiences?
• Evidence of some rapid changes in core aspects of
adult interpersonal relationships
– E.g. trust levels fell substantially in Eastern Europe in
years following end of Communism (Inglehart, 2003).
What kind of anxieties/ ambivalence does this produce?
• Definition of avoidant attachment style (Hazan &
Shaver, 1990): “I am somewhat uncomfortable
being close to others; I find it difficult to trust
them completely”
• Work on mortality salience demonstrates that
when people more scared, new unexpected
attachments form (Schachter, Mikulincer).
• Insomuch as attachment style is personal resource,
may also be critical in appraising societal change
(Lazarus, 1991)
Attachment, culture, and ‘other
things’: culture as mediator
?
Attachment
Relationships
Culture
Attachment, culture, and ‘other
things’: culture as mediator
• Some evidence of cultural differences in
association between attachment  marital
relationship (Onishi & Gjerde, 2002 in Japan)
• Q: Just how “relevant” is an individuals
attachment style when s/he comes to forming adult
relationships?
• Substantial proportion of world’s marriages are at
least semi-arranged (Goodwin, 1999).
• People in most cultures desire relationships
with particular others (attractive, charming,
British).
• But in practice: Where broader societal
factors are more important (Collectivist
societies?) variance explained by
attachment style in actual relationship
formation may be small
In sum
Culture
Parenting
Attachment
Relationships
a
b
a. Cultural/ Societal changes directly impact on adult (?) attachment
b. Culture directly impacts on relationship practices