Cross-Cultural Differences in Development Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Development

Dr. K. A. KorbUniversity of Jos

Outline

• Introduction• Parenting Practices• Infant Development• Moral Development


Development

• Ontogenetic Development: Development of an individual across the lifetime

• Development occurs as the interaction between:

1. Biology2. Environment


Cultural Transmission

• Cultural Transmission: Passing on culture to the next generation though teaching/learning

• Observational Learning (Social Learning)• Guided Participation

• Types of cultural Transmission – Vertical Transmission: From parents to offspring– Horizontal Transmission: From peers– Oblique Transmission: From other adult and institutions


Cultural Transmission

• Enculturation: Individual learns cultural practices simply by being encompassed in a culture

• Socialization: Deliberate teaching of cultural practices

• Enculturation and socialization result in behavioral similarities within cultures and differences between the cultures

• Acculturation: Cultural transmission from a secondary culture


Theories of self

• Independent view of self: Personal distinctness, emphasizing unique personal attributesInterdependent view of self: Individual is fundamentally connected to other people, individual interests are secondary to group needs


Six Dimensions of Child Rearing (Barry, Bacon & Child, 1957)

• Obedience Training: Degree to which children are trained to obey adults

• Responsibility Training: Degree which children are trained take responsibility for tasks

• Nurturance Training: Degree to which children are trained to care for the younger siblings and others

• Achievement Training: Degree to which children are trained to strive for standards of excellence in performance

• Self- Reliance: Degree to which children are trained to be independent of the assistance from others for supplying their own needs and wants

• General independent training: Degree to which children are trained toward freedom from control, domination, and supervision


Parenting Ethnotheories

• Parenting Enthnotheories: Knowledge and beliefs about the domain of parenting – Beliefs, values, and practices of parent about the proper way to

raise a child• Affection and warmth between parents and children • Amount of time breastfeeding• Development: When a child walks, talks, chooses friends• Why children misbehave and how to discipline • Amount of talk to children• Sleeping patterns


Parenting Ethnotheories

• Videotapes of children in preschool in Japan and USA were shown to teachers (Tobin, Wu, & Davidson, 1989)– Perspectives on class size:

• US: Disapproved of the large responsibility on teachers by having a large number (30) of children in Japanese classrooms

• Japanese: Disapproved of the small class size in the US because children would be unable to learn from others

– Perspective on misbehavior:• Japanese: Children did not develop a healthy dependency on their

mother. • US: Children had inherent problems


Parenting Ehtnotheories

• Conclusions– Parents and other caretakers influence their child’s

development through socialization practices based on their cultural beliefs

– Parents reflect the standard and expectations of their cultural environment in:

1. How they treat their children2. How they perceive social situations– Parents do not tend to realize the extent to which

they direct their children into cultural practices


Infant Development

• African Infant Precocity: African babies develop considerably faster in motor skills than Euroamerican babies (Gerber & Dean, 1957)– Losing reflexes, holding up head

• Study Characteristics:– Different doctor to diagnose in different cultures – Limited to babies weighting more than 2500g

• Follow-up studies found that African Infant precocity was slightly exaggerated


Infant Development• Comparison of Milestones

– African babies sit up and walk about 1 month before Euroamerican babies

– Euroamerican babies crawl before African babies• Cultural factors that may in influence infant

development:– Amount that mothers work in late pregnancy – Anesthesia during birth– Massaging babies– Vertical position of baby while mother works

• Conclusion: There is a link between parental ethnotheories, cultural parental practices, and infant development


Parenting of Infants

• Intuitive parenting practices: Cross-cultural similarity in parenting of infants– Attempt to capture and maintain the infant’s

attention– Exaggerating facial expression– Motherese: Higher pitch and larger variations in

pitch when speaking to infants


Parenting of Infants

• Speech to children– Affect-salient speech: Songs, nonsense

expressions, and incomplete statements• Empathize with needs of infants

– Information-Salient speech: provide information about the environment with a child• Encourages individual expression


Parenting of Infants• Frequency of mothers in western Kenya holding their

infants had positive correlation with the child’s affective disposition at 12 years (Keller & Eckensberger,1998)

• Frequency of mother-holding did not influence cognitive performance

• Domain-specific consequences for early experiences• Conclusion: Different parenting practices do not have

general development consequences, but the outcomes are specifically related to the parenting practices


Attachment of Children• Attachment: Deep emotional bond developed between

an infant and its primary caretaker– Attachment is the result of interactions between an infant and the

mother– Secure attachment allow the child to explore the environment– Secure attachment to one primary caregiver is necessary for social and

emotional development– Secure attachment assessed by the Strange Situation

• Cross- Cultural equivalence of Strange Situation is questionable– Many societies use multiple caregivers


Play

• Children playing is culturally universal• Functions of play:– Promote cognitive development• Symbolism, Language use, problem solving, role-

playing, creativity

– Promote social development• Friendship, Social competence, Emotional maturity


Play

• Cultural differences in play – Amount of time children spent playing – Age at children stop playing– Sibling involvement in play– Adulthood involvement in play

• Children in complex cultures play more and play with more complexity


Play

• Chinese children spent more time playing with other children whereas American children spent more time playing individually (Haight,Wang, Fung, Williams, & Mintz, 1999)

• When playing with toddlers, Japanese mothers focus more on social interactions while American mothers use play to teach knowledge of the world.


Ecology and Child Rearing• Pastoral and Agricultural societies are high in food

accumulation – Hypothesized to be highly conscientious, compliant, and conservation

• Hunting and Gathering societies are low in food accumulation– Hypothesized to the highly individualistic, assertive, and venturesome

• On a scale of compliance-assertion (Barry, Child, and Bacon, 1959)– Of the 23 societies ranking high in compliance, 20 were high food

accumulating – Of the 23 societies ranking high in assertion 19 were low food

accumulation


Gender Difference in Child Rearing

• Girls tent to be socializes more towards:– Obedience– Responsibility– Nurturance

• Boys tend to be socialized more towards:– Achievement– Self-Reliance


Gender Differences in child Rearing

• Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)– www.yale.edu/hraf/home.htm– Describes 863 cultures across the world

• Universal Gender Rearing practices– Males: Self-assertive, Achievement-Oriented Dominant– Females: Socially responsive, Passive, Submissive

• Research has found that these gender rearing practices are:– Almost universal– Almost never reversed– Size of gender differences range from very large to very small


http://www.yale.edu/hraf/home.htm

Gender Differences in Child Rearing

• Universals in Division of Labor – Women tend to prepare food and care for children

• Differences in Division of Labor– Degree to which women contribute to subsistence

(Schlegel & Barry, 1986)• Women tend to have high contributions in agriculture and

gathering societies• Women tend to have low contributions in animal husbandry,

intensive agriculture, fishing, and hunting societies


Gender Differences in Child Rearing

• Women’s participation in subsistence tend to affect:– Adaptive Mechanisms• Polygyny, Bride-price, Birth control, Work training for

girls– Attitudes toward women• Females relatively highly valued• Females allowed freedom• Less likely to viewed as object for male needs


Child Rearing Conclusion

• Some child-rearing practices are similar across all cultures

• Child-rearing also differs from one society to the other

• Universalist Perspective


Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development

• Kohlberg stated that development of moral reasoning follows same sequence in all cultures– Differences in the rate of development and number of people who

reached the highest levels

• Cross-Cultural studies have provided support:– Invariance of the sequence of stages– First two level of reasoning of found in many societies – No evidence for post-conventional stage in any village cultures– Post-conventional reasoning appears to only result from complex

urban societies


Moral Development

• Research from other paradigms have found evidence:– Alternative post-conventional moralities based on

natural law, justice, or family orientation as opposed to individualism

– Right-based vs. Duty-based orientation


Development Conclusion

• The development of a child is influenced by:– Physical and social settings

• Social interactions and environmental conditions and dangers

– Child-care customs • Cultural practices and institutions

– Caretaker psychology• Beliefs, values, and practices of parents

• Different practices can promote or constrain development


Revision

• Explain the six dimensions of child rearing .• Explain the concept of parental ethnotheories and

how they can influence development.• What are some common and different parenting

practices across cultures?• Explain how the three perspectives on cross-cultural

psychology (absolutism, universalism, and relativism) relate to Attachment Theory and Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development.


Cross-Cultural Differences in Development Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos.

Documents

Transcript of Cross-Cultural Differences in Development Dr. K. A. Korb University of Jos.