It is of interest for us to take a look at how the well-known strange situation paradigm (SSP) by Mary Ainsworth was conducted in Japanese environment.
There was a famous study by “Miyake and his collaborators who conducted the SSP with Japanese infants living in Sapporo. Miyake et al (1985) and Takahashi reported that there were more than 30% C's and no A's in their sample. This results differ strikingly from those of the American samples, that is, there were 10% - 20% C's and 20%-30% A's”(Ujiie, 1986).
Those who are not familiar with these typing, here is a rough guideline of how these types are conceptualized in the SSP.
A: Insecure Avoidant
Insecure avoidant children do not orientate to their attachment figure while investigating the environment. They do not seek contact with the attachment figure when distressed. Such children are likely to have a caregiver who is insensitive and rejecting of their needs (Ainsworth, 1979).
B: Secure Attachment
Such children feel confident that the attachment figure will be available to meet their needs. They use the attachment figure as a safe base to explore the environment and seek the attachment figure in times of distress (Main, & Cassidy, 1988). Securely attached infants are easily soothed by the attachment figure when upset. Infants develop a secure attachment when the caregiver is sensitive to their signals, and responds appropriately to their needs.
C: Insecure Ambivalent / Resistant
Here children adopt an ambivalent behavioral style towards the attachment figure. The child will commonly exhibit clingy and dependent behavior, but will be rejecting of the attachment figure when they engage in interaction. The child fails to develop any feelings of security from the attachment figure.
They argued about why in Japanese situation, there is 0 % of type A. Again, I quote Ujiie’s statement.
Miyake et al (1985) answered this question by throwing doubt on the assumption of the ABC typology and applicability of the procedure to Japanese infants. Owing to the facts that Japanese mother and infant relationship is typically characterized by constantly close physical contact and by the infrequency of separation from the mother, and that the Japanese infants tend to have a temperamental disposition towards fearfulness and irritability, it can be expected that the Strange Situation will be too strange and too stressful for Japanese infants. Thus they did not consider the C type of response of the Japanese infants as a direct reflection of a greater tendency to be insecurely attached. Their interpretation was supported by Ujiie & Miyake (1985) and Ujiie & Chen Request for reprint should be sent to Tatsuo Ujiie, Kunitachi College of Music, 5-5-1 Kashiwa-cho, Tachikawa-shi, Tokyo 190, Japan. - 1 - 24 (1985). Ujiie & Miyake (1985) described Japanese infants' behavior patterns in the Strange Situation and made a comparison with Ainsworth's description on American infants. They found that Japanese infants tended to be extremely distressed throughout the strange situation. Even in Episode 2, they tended to activate attachment behaviors such as seeking proximity and contact with their mothers, and inhibit exploratory behaviors. These tendencies indicated that they seemed to experience strong stress even in the beginning of the procedure, because, according to the attachment theory of Bowlby (1969) and Ainsworth (Ainsworth et aI, 1978), the attachment system was in general activated when infants experienced distress, while the explorative system was inhibited under stress. In the case of U. S. samples, most infants actively explored the unfamiliar situation, and did not activate an attachment system in Episode 2. This fact seems to suggest that the psychological meaning of Strange Situation differs even at Episode l.(underline added by Okano).
