Chapter 5 Flashcards
Babies Video from class - in what ways were some of the babies cultural experiences similar and different from one another?
differences: the baby from Namibia wore little to no clothing and spent the majority of its time outside and unsupervised
similarities: seemed to crawl around same time as other babies and go through same developmental stages
What is meant by sensitive period?
theres a certain period of time for language learning and if that period is missed then language development is very hard
What is some evidence for a sensitive period for language acquisition?
Wolf Child (raised in the woods, never spoke a real language… just growled and howled)
the girl that was held hostage for most of her life and never talked to… was unable to learn any language and communicate with others
What is a common method (shown via a video) used to investigate children’s abilities to distinguish phonemes?
Sounds would play and they would slightly change one and see if the baby would perk up and look around
ex) da.. da.. da.. ba.. da
What is some evidence that there is a sensitive period for acquiring culture?
There was a study done with migrants to Canada and it was found that the younger the person was (age 15 or younger) when they migrated, the easier it was for them to identify with the Canadian culture the longer they lived there
What is known about how babies can interpret and distinguish phonemes compared to older infants?
very young babies in English-speaking households can distinguish between two Hindi phonemes, older infants being raised in the same environment can no longer do so
How does infant personal space differ across culture (and connect this with the Babies video)?
some cultures like their babies to be swaddled very tightly at all times while others let theirs explore more independently
ex) the Nomad tribe and the Asian cultures vs. the Namibia and U.S. cultures
How is the practice of co-sleeping perceived in different cultures?
co-sleeping is very typical in all other cultures and countries besides the one in the U.S. because we highly value independence (as seen in babies video)
How does America moralize the co-sleeping practice, and what were the results of the study referred to in figure 5.8?
Americans see co-sleeping as a problem due to incest avoidance, protection of the vulnerable, the idea of the sacred couple, and the autonomy ideal
the study found that Americans liked sleeping situations that positioned children of same sex sleeping together and keeping the couple separate from the children while Indian participates didn’t really find a problem with children of different sex sleeping together
What are the top two principles that Indians and Americans each used when deciding about sleeping arrangements in the sleep study?
Americans strive to protect the privacy of the married couple and encourage the development of independence among their children while Indians prefer to keep their kids from being alone and offer the older boys the option of sleeping alone if they choose
What were some of Amy Chua’s parenting practices, and how do these fit or not fit with Baumrind’s three main parenting styles(be able to identify these)?
Authoritarian Parenting Style (high demands and low responsiveness) She expected her kids to participate in certain activities or not in certain activities and they had no say or choice in the matter
ex) three hours of violin everyday, not able to participate in any theater productions or classes, sleepovers, playdates, tv, or video games
How are warmth and responsiveness communicated in different cultures?
EXPLICITLY communicated in Western Culture
IMPLICITLY communicated in Asian Cultures
What does the authoritarian category exclude in relation to Chinese parenting?
infants and toddlers receive almost any indulgence that they want and have very low expectations from parents until they are school age… the parenting style changes according to the child’s stage of development
What is a noun bias?
the idea that children are much more likely to have a preference to learn nouns and are much more likely to have their first word be a noun
ex) momma, dadda, ball
who evidences noun biases and what are some explanations for why?
much evidence that this idea is present in North American babies
Reasoning:
could be due to prominence of nouns vs. verbs in different sentences, emphasizing objects vs. relations when playing
