Critical Analysis and Limitations
The research has some serious flaws you should be aware of for your exams. The Strange Situation test was created and tested exclusively in America, making it potentially culturally biased towards Western values and expectations.
This American bias is problematic because the test assumes that separation anxiety indicates healthy attachment - but this assumption might not apply to other cultures like Japan, where different parenting styles are considered normal.
Here's the most important finding: researchers discovered bigger differences within cultures than between them. This means you can't generalise that everyone from the same country parents in identical ways - social class, region, and individual family traditions create huge variations.
Exam Alert: Always mention that within-culture differences were greater than between-culture differences - this is a key evaluation point that demonstrates critical thinking!
For example, in the UK, middle-class families often use completely different child-rearing techniques compared to working-class families, despite sharing the same national culture.