Filling a significant gap in the literature, this book examines the impact of culture on the social behaviors, emotions, and relationships of children around the world. It also explores cultural differences in what is seen as adaptive or maladaptive development. Eminent scholars discuss major theoretical perspectives on culture and development and present cutting-edge research findings. The volume addresses key aspects of socioemotional functioning, including emotional expressivity, parent–child and peer relationships, autonomy, self-regulation, intergroup attitudes, and aggression. Implications for culturally informed intervention and prevention are highlighted.
A comprehensive, systematic account of human development which is sensitive to the needs, interests and ecologies of nonwestern cultures and individuals is provided in this unique volume. The importance and value of the sociocultural milieu in shaping the growth and development of children is emphasized, and the author asserts throughout that children do not grow and develop according to the same patterns regardless of culture. The author describes developmental psychology from the perspective of West Africa, demonstrating how the local ecology and the resulting cultural ideology lead to differing ways in which children are conceptualized and socialized, and in turn how they develop. While much of his case material is from
This book examines how culture affects several aspect of human development, such as cognition, emotion, sociolinguistics, peer relationships, family relationships.
This book addresses cultural variability in children’s social worlds, examining the acquisition, development, and use of culturally relevant social competencies valued in diverse cultural contexts. It discusses the different aspects of preschoolers’ social competencies that allow children – including adopted, immigrant, or at-risk children – to create and maintain relationships, communicate, and to get along with other people at home, in daycare or school, and other situations. Chapters explore how children’s social competencies reflect the features of the social worlds in which they live and grow. In addition, chapters examine the extent that different cultural value orientations manifest in children’s social functioning and escribes how parents in autonomy-oriented cultures tend to value different social skills than parents with relatedness or autonomous-relatedness orientations. The book concludes with recommendations for future research directions. Topics featured in this book include: Gender development in young children. Peer interactions and relationships during the preschool years. Sibling interactions in western and non-western cultural groups. The roles of grandparents in child development. Socialization and development in refugee children. Child development within institutional care. Children’s Social Worlds in Cultural Context is a valuable resource for researchers, clinicians/practitioners, and graduate students in developmental psychology, child and school psychology, social work, cultural anthropology, family studies, and education.
The Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture provides a comprehensive synopsis of theory and research on human development, with every chapter drawing together findings from cultures around the world. This includes a focus on cultural diversity within nations, cultural change, and globalization. Expertly edited by Lene Arnett Jensen, the Handbook covers the entire lifespan from the prenatal period to old age. It delves deeply into topics such as the development of emotion, language, cognition, morality, creativity, and religion, as well as developmental contexts such as family, friends, civic institutions, school, media, and work. Written by an international group of eminent and cutting-edge experts, chapters showcase the burgeoning interdisciplinary approach to scholarship that bridges universal and cultural perspectives on human development. This "cultural-developmental approach" is a multifaceted, flexible, and dynamic way to conceptualize theory and research that is in step with the cultural and global realities of human development in the 21st century.
Culture plays an important role in socio-emotional development. Within the context of close relationships, culture can influence the way we think about and relate to others. However, the transactional associations between close relationships and culture may differentially influence socio-emotional development at different developmental stages. Moreover, existing literature on culture and socio-emotional development lack ecologically-valid measures and rarely take into account the element of time. The goal of this dissertation is to examine how cultural factors may affect socio-emotional development by (i) using ecologically valid approaches and (ii) taking into account the element of time. Study I examined the relations between cultural orientations, intrusive parenting, and child adjustment in Chinese American immigrant families. Participants were Chinese American children and their parents from first- and second-generation immigrant families. Observed intrusive parenting behaviors were coded from videotaped parent–child conflict discussions. Findings indicated that there was a unique positive association between child Chinese orientation and child-reported intrusive parenting, a unique negative association between parents’ American orientation and child-reported intrusive parenting, and a unique positive association between child American orientation and observed intrusive parenting. Intrusive parenting was negatively associated with child adjustment, but associations varied depending on measurement. Findings suggest that different measures of intrusive parenting are differentially associated with children’s adjustment in Chinese American immigrant families. Study II expanded upon the findings of Study I to examine culture and socio-emotional development within a different developmental period and a different cultural context. Specifically, Study II examined endorsement of cultural values in Latinx emerging adults using an intensive longitudinal design. Participants reported on their cultural values, social environment, and socio-emotional wellbeing twice a day for 14 consecutive days. Using multilevel modeling, findings suggest substantial variation of cultural values at the within-person level. Follow-up analyses indicated that facets of the social environment, including occurrence of social interaction, who the interaction person was, quality of social interaction, closeness of relationship, and belongingness were consistently associated with interdependent, but not independent values. Furthermore, interdependent values were associated with better socio-emotional wellbeing in Latinx college students, but this pattern was not found for independent values. These findings highlight the need to study changes in culture as a function of the social environment, and the need to measure culture using ecologically valid measures that allow for more sensitive and dynamic assessments. Taken together, this dissertation presented testable, hence replicable means to examining the complex relationships between the macrosystem (culture), the microsystem (close relationships), and the chronosystem (time).
There are many reasons to be curious about the way people learn, and the past several decades have seen an explosion of research that has important implications for individual learning, schooling, workforce training, and policy. In 2000, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition was published and its influence has been wide and deep. The report summarized insights on the nature of learning in school-aged children; described principles for the design of effective learning environments; and provided examples of how that could be implemented in the classroom. Since then, researchers have continued to investigate the nature of learning and have generated new findings related to the neurological processes involved in learning, individual and cultural variability related to learning, and educational technologies. In addition to expanding scientific understanding of the mechanisms of learning and how the brain adapts throughout the lifespan, there have been important discoveries about influences on learning, particularly sociocultural factors and the structure of learning environments. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures provides a much-needed update incorporating insights gained from this research over the past decade. The book expands on the foundation laid out in the 2000 report and takes an in-depth look at the constellation of influences that affect individual learning. How People Learn II will become an indispensable resource to understand learning throughout the lifespan for educators of students and adults.
"Individually and collectively, the pieces balance cross-cultural psychology′s interest in the large scale community with psychology′s traditional emphasis on small groups, interpersonal processes, and individual thought, feeling, and action. The chapters range in topic, in level of analysis, and in emphasis on theory and application, but they harmonize to map the field - identifying where it has been and how it might develop. The central theme is that culture and individual psychology are inseparable and that understanding both will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of human behavior than either perspective in isolation. The book delivers: It offers important insights on the commonalties, universality, and uniqueness of human behavior. The book is dedicated to Harry C. Triandis and is truly a tribute to his work." — John F. Dovidio, Department of Psychology, Colgate University "In this book, cross-cultural psychologists from around the world honor the discipline′s founding father, Harry C. Triandis. The book has become a perfect overview of the state of the art in cross-cultural psychology." — Geert Hofstede, Tilburg University, The Netherlands "The past 10 years or so have seen a sharp increase in the number of college and university courses throughout the world that focus on culture as a powerful force that shapes the thought and behavior of all humans. It would be most difficult to organize and teach one of these courses without mentioning Triandis′s influence numerous times. I am extremely pleased that this book has been added to the cross-cultural literature." — from the Foreword by Walter J. Lonner, Western Washington State University This book celebrates Harry Triandis′s overall contribution to culture and social psychology in general, and his most original and significant contribution to this area, the concept of subjective culture. In this volume, top cross-cultural researchers who are deeply familiar with Triandis′s work critically examine the concept of subjective culture from a number of perspectives and extend it in many new directions of basic and applied social psychology. The result is an up-to-date examination of various topics and areas of social psychology from the unique perspective of subjective culture. One significant feature of this book is an attempt at framing and situating the concept of subjective culture within the current theoretical discourse on culture and psychology. Social Psychology and Cultural Context is the first survey of social psychology to integrate cross-cultural issues. This book not only utilizes several variants of the construct of subjective culture but also reflects the current state of affairs in the social domain of cross-cultural psychology. Written by world-renowned specialists, the chapters reflect valuable insights to students and researchers in both cross-cultural and social psychology.
The study of child development has emerged in the context of Western society, with the practical needs and social norms of this culture dominating the field. Consequently, the development of children within Western culture has come to be considered the norm for all children, regardless of how different their economic and cultural environments might be. Such a viewpoint often leads to narrow or possibly misleading conclusions about what is "natural". This volume combines approaches from anthropology and cross- cultural psychology to explore means of making developmental psychology much more culture-inclusive -- that is, considering the reciprocal, ongoing relationship between culture and individual development.
This book responds to the absence of a comprehensive consideration of the implications of culture for children's peer relationships. Although research in this field has burgeoned in recent years, cultural issues have often been overlooked. The chapters tap such issues as the impact of social circumstances and cultural values on peer relationships, culturally prescribed socialization patterns and processes, emotional experience and regulation in peer interactions, children's social behaviors in peer interactions, cultural aspects of friendships, and peer influences on social and school adjustment in cultural context. The authors incorporate into their discussions findings from research programs using multiple methodologies, including both qualitative (e.g., interviewing, ethnographic and observational) and quantitative (e.g., large scale surveys, standardized questionnaires) approaches, based on a wide range of ages of children in cultures from East to West and from South to North (Asia, South America, the Mid-East, Southern Europe, and ethnic groups in the US).
