Chapter 6- Culture and human ontogenetic development

Question 1

Child Development Theories

Answer 1

Jean Jacques Rousseau, Erick Erikson, John B. Watson, James Mark Baldwin, Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, Lev Vygotsky, and Jean Piaget, among others, have studied the transformations during early human development.

Question 2

Nativist Approach:

Answer 2

Human abilities and development pathways are innate.

Development is predetermined by genetic make-up.

Examples: Immanuel Kant, Karl Bühler, Stanley Hall, Noam Chomsky, Steven Pinker.

This approach is related to the evolutionary psychologists’ idea that suggests that evolutionary evolved psychological modules/mechanisms are responsible for the development of human
capacities.

Question 3

Behaviourist Explanation:

Answer 3

Behaviour is shaped by reinforcements, rewards, and punishments.

Development is influenced by environmental factors.

Examples: John Watson, Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, B. F. Skinner.

Question 4

Piagetian Theory:

Answer 4

Focuses on cognitive development.
Emphasizes stages of cognitive growth.

Highlights the role of interaction with the environment in learning.

Question 5

Sociocultural Theory

Answer 5

Developed by Lev Vygotsky.

Emphasizes the role of social interaction in development.

Stresses the importance of cultural context in learning and development

Question 6

Why is it scientifically challenging to study the mechanisms of human development?

Answer 6

Human development involves invisible processes that are not easily noticeable, requiring scientific inquiry to penetrate beyond surface observations and understand the underlying mechanisms and dynamics of development.

Question 7

What is meant by the term “mechanism” in the context of human development?

Answer 7

In modern philosophy of science, a mechanism refers to a system of interrelated processes, including genetic, neurophysiological, psychological, social, and cultural factors, that work together to cause a particular behavioral or experiential phenomenon during human development.

Question 8

What is the Piagetian theory of cognitive development?

Answer 8

The Piagetian theory, also known as the constructivist approach, posits that child mental development occurs through the processes of assimilation and accommodation as children interact with and explore the physical world. Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operations, and formal operations

Question 9

What is assimilation in the context of Piaget’s theory?

Answer 9

Assimilation is the process by which a child incorporates new experiences or information into existing cognitive schemas, leading to a state of cognitive equilibrium.

Example: A child sees a dog for the first time, and based on their existing schema of four-legged furry animals, they label it as a “doggie,” thus assimilating the new information into their existing cognitive framework.

Question 10

What is accommodation in Piaget’s theory?

Answer 10

Accommodation is the process by which a child modifies existing cognitive schemas to incorporate new information or experiences that cannot be assimilated, leading to a state of cognitive equilibrium.

Example: After mistakenly calling a cat a “doggie” based on their existing schema, a child is corrected by their parent. The child then adjusts their schema to differentiate between cats and dogs, accommodating the new information.

Question 11

What are Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development?

Answer 11

Piaget’s stages are:
1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years),
- infants learn about the world through their senses and motor actions. They develop object permanence and begin to understand cause and effect relationships.

2. Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years),
   - children engage in symbolic play and develop language skills. However, they struggle with logical reasoning and tend to exhibit egocentrism.
3. Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years), and
   -children begin to think logically about concrete events and understand conservation principles. They also demonstrate the ability to perform mental operations but struggle with abstract thinking.
4. Formal operational stage (12 years and up).
   -adolescents and adults develop the ability to think abstractly and engage in hypothetical-deductive reasoning. They can solve complex problems and think about future possibilities.

Question 12

What does the sociocultural theory of human development emphasize?

Answer 12

Lev Vygotsky (1897-1937), a Russian Soviet psychologist, is predominantly associated with the origin of the sociocultural theory of human development

The sociocultural theory emphasizes the central role of culture and social interactions between children and adults in human development.

Vygotsky defines Culture (with a capital C) as the exclusively human and universal human-made environment with normative regulatory mechanisms that constitute an undeniable part of the existence of Homo Sapience members.

Question 13

According to Vygotsky, what is the role of social interactions in human development?

Answer 13

According to Vygotsky, social interactions serve as the vehicle through which knowledge, traditions, modes of thought, and prescriptions for actions are transmitted from the child’s cultural community to the child.

Caring adults assist in transmitting cultural knowledge from the community into the child’s mental domain, thereby contributing to the child’s cognitive, moral, and self-regulatory capacities.

Question 14

What does internalizing communal cultural knowledge lead to, according to the sociocultural theory?

Answer 14

Internalizing communal cultural knowledge leads to the socialization and enculturation of the child into the world of their community, enabling them to become a full-functioning member of it.

Question 15

What is considered the primary force of human development in the Hindu tradition?

Answer 15

In the Hindu tradition, the primary force of human development is a person’s karma or accumulation of good and bad deeds in previous lives.

The ultimate purpose of life in Hindu tradition is to attain moksha, which is the state where the individual soul joins the Eternal Mind or Brahman, leading to eternal happiness or nirvana.

Question 16

According to Hindu developmental teachings, what virtues should children cultivate?

Answer 16

Children in Hindu tradition are encouraged to cultivate virtues such as studiousness, discipline, duty, obedience, humility, unselfishness, self-sacrifice, chastity, equanimity, and purity in speech and thoughts.

Question 17

How do modern Indians deviate from traditional Hindu developmental guidance?

Answer 17

Modern Indians believe that all children are initially good, and their social conditions and environment corrupt them. They believe that children’s cognitive development depends largely on their efforts and partly on their heredity, deviating from the traditional Hindu belief in karma or inherited propensities predetermining most aspects of life

Question 18

What was Vygotsky’s primary focus in his research?

Answer 18

Vygotsky aimed to explore the development of higher mental functions (HMF) in children, such as intentional attention, logical reasoning, self-regulation, speech, and communication, with the ultimate goal of understanding the formation of fully-functioning rational, conscious, and volitional individuals.

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory focuses on the process, rather than the product, of child cognitive development, aiming to understand the mechanisms of the development of higher mental functions.

Question 19

What is the “general genetic law of cultural development” according to Vygotsky?

Answer 19

The “general genetic law of cultural development” states that any function of the child’s cultural development appears first on the social plane (interpsychological category) among members of the child’s community, and then on the psychological plane (intrapsychological category) within the child. Social relations or relations among people genetically underlie all higher functions and their relationships.

Question 20

How do children learn and internalize external regulatory processes according to Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 20

Children learn and internalize external regulatory processes through their interactions with adults, subsequently transforming them into their internal mental regulatory operations.
This process of internalization is essential for the development of higher mental functions.

Question 21

What do representatives of the Vygotskian and Neo-Vygotskian versions of the theory examine?

Answer 21

Representatives of the Vygotskian and Neo-Vygotskian versions of the theory inquire into and examine the conditions and specific mechanisms that lead to the transformation of external regulatory processes into internal mental regulatory operations during child development.

Question 22

How did Vygotsky view the connection between social interactions and culture?

Answer 22

Vygotsky believed that social interactions are structured cultural practices primarily organized by language and cultural meanings. He referred to these structured interactions as “mature cultural forms of behavior.”

Vygotsky used the term “mature cultural forms of behavior” to describe uniformed and structured social interactions that are organized by cultural meanings and language.

Question 23

How did Vygotsky integrate the concepts of social and cultural in his theory?

Answer 23

Vygotsky began using the terms “sociocultural” to describe the environment in which humans function, highlighting the inseparable connection between social and cultural aspects of people’s lives.

Vygotsky emphasized that everything that is cultural is social, suggesting that culture is the product of social life and human social activity.

Question 24

What does Vygotsky’s theory emphasize regarding the development of children?

Answer 24

Vygotsky’s theory highlights the interconnectedness of social and cultural patterns and practices in society and emphasizes the primacy of these sociocultural influences in the mechanisms of children’s mental development.

Question 25

What are the two lines of child development according to Vygotsky?

Answer 25

Vygotsky distinguished between the “natural” line of development, which unfolds based on inherited developmental programs, and the “sociocultural” line, which transforms elementary forms into higher mental processes through cultural influences.

Question 26

What is the primary mechanism of development according to Vygotsky?

Answer 26

The primary mechanism is internalization, whereby certain aspects of patterns of activity performed externally come to be executed internally. This process involves the transformation of external activities into internal mental functions.

Internalization involves the transformation of external actions into internal mental functions. For example, a child’s grasping movement transforms into a communicative act of pointing under adult guidance, and eventually, the child internalizes this gesture for self-regulation.

Question 27

What is the significance of mediation in Vygotsky’s theory?

Answer 27

Mediation is essential for the development of higher mental functions (HMF). It involves the use of cultural tools, both physical and symbolic, to mediate mental processes and regulate cognitive functions.

Question 28

Define the zone of proximal development (ZPD) according to Vygotsky.

Answer 28

The ZPD is the difference between a child’s actual developmental level as determined by independent problem-solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or collaboration with more capable peers.

Question 29

What is the shared intentionality theory developed by Tomasello?

Answer 29

The shared intentionality theory explores the development of uniquely human mental capacities through a focus on shared intentionality, cooperation, and communication within social contexts.

Question 30

What are the four aspects of child development focused on in Tomasello’s approach?

Answer 30

The four aspects are:

1. Identifying specific human mental capacities that differentiate humans from our ape ancestors.
2. Exploring the capabilities and potentials children possess upon entering the sociocultural world.
3. Examining the nature of the sociocultural world children inhabit and identifying crucial elements for their development.
4. Discussing the mechanisms of interactions between the sociocultural world and the child and the dynamics of developing uniquely human mental capacities.

Question 31

What fundamental human capabilities must be developed in the child?

Answer 31

The fundamental human capabilities that must be cultivated in the child include:
-Consciousness and self-awareness
-Rational thinking, reflection, and abstraction
-Mastery of language for effective communication
-Social skills for interaction and cooperation with others
-Moral development and adherence to ethical norms within the communit

Question 32

What are the developmental domains within which child mental development unfolds?

Answer 32

Child mental development unfolds within several domains, including:
-Cognitive development: Understanding reality, problem-solving, acquiring and creating knowledge

-Language use and communication: Mastery of language, effective expression and comprehension, appreciation of symbolic representations

-Social development: Getting along with others, understanding social dynamics, conflict resolution, negotiation

-Moral development: Understanding and following ethical norms, moral decision-making, promoting peaceful and cooperative social interactions

Question 33

What are the two layers of genetic predispositions and traits that every human being is equipped with?

Answer 33

The first layer consists of basic skills shared with great apes, such as managing the environment, differentiating quantities, and creating primitive tools.

The second layer consists of uniquely human propensities toward social cognition and creating sociocultural realities.

Question 34

What abilities and behaviors are characteristic of toddlers based on their inherited developmental programs?

Answer 34

Toddlers possess cognitive skills for dealing with space, objects, tools, quantities, categories, social relationships, communication, and social learning.

Socially, they react to human closeness, respond to the human voice and touch, smile, imitate actions, experience emotions, and communicate needs through crying.

Question 35

How do uniquely human predispositions differ from ape-like developmental programs?

Answer 35

Uniquely human predispositions include abilities related to social cognition and creating sociocultural realities.

While ape-like programs start functioning automatically at birth, human predispositions require a sociocultural environment and interaction with engaged adults to develop.

Question 36

What kind of environment do human beings need for normal social and cognitive development?

Answer 36

Human beings require a species-specific niche, which is the human cultural community, for normal social and cognitive development.

This cultural environment is essential for children to become fully-functioning human beings, similar to how baby fish need water and baby birds need air space to develop properly.

Question 37

What is the cultural intelligence hypothesis proposed by Tomasello and his team?

Answer 37

The cultural intelligence hypothesis suggests that humans have specialized proclivity toward social and cultural regulatory processes, allowing them to absorb and develop complex cognitive skills from their social group.

This hypothesis posits that humans, even at a young age, are predisposed to learn from others and understand social cues in a way that exceeds the abilities of other animals, including apes.

Question 38

What are the three stages of becoming human according to Tomasello’s shared intentionality theory?

Answer 38

1. Individual intentionality: From birth to approximately nine months of age, the child sets and pursues their own goals.
2. Joint intentionality: From around ten months to approximately three years of age, the child begins to engage in joint activities and shared goals with others.
3. Collective intentionality: After three years of age, the child enters the cultural world and starts cultural learning through collective intentionality, eventually joining the cultural world of adults and acquiring communal heritage around six or seven years of age.

Question 39

What are the key cognitive capabilities that emerge in babies around nine months of age according to the shared intentionality theory?

Answer 39

1. The ability to understand that others are intentional agents like themselves.
2. The ability to perceive and follow another person’s attention (gaze) and join them in looking at the same object or direction.
3. The understanding of another person’s perspective and the coordination of one’s own perspective with others’ perspectives.

Question 40

What is joint intentionality according to Tomasello’s shared intentionality theory?

Answer 40

Joint intentionality refers to the ability of individuals, typically emerging around nine months of age, to engage in cooperative coordination with others towards shared goals and jointly coordinated actions.

Question 41

How does understanding others as intentional agents contribute to the development of the child’s self-concept?

Answer 41

Understanding others as intentional agents allows the child to perceive themselves as others do and to judge themselves based on others’ attitudes. This contributes to the emergence of the child’s self-concept (‘Me’-self) and self-identity.

Question 42

Describe the transition from individual intentionality to joint intentionality in child development.

Answer 42

The transition from individual intentionality to joint intentionality occurs around nine months of age, marking a shift from the child’s focus on individual goals to consideration of others’ goals and intentions. This transition enables cooperative coordination and shared activities.

Question 43

What is the significance of gaze following and joint attention in child development?

Answer 43

Gaze following and joint attention are crucial because they enable the child to perceive others as intentional agents like themselves and lay the foundation for cooperative coordination and shared intentionality.

Question 44

How does the ability to understand another person’s perspective contribute to child development?

Answer 44

Understanding another person’s perspective allows the child to engage in perspective-taking, which is essential for communication, cooperation, and social interaction. It enables the child to exchange and coordinate perspectives with others, leading to the development of joint intentionality.

Question 45

What role does triadic interaction play in child development?

Answer 45

Triadic interaction involves the child, an adult, and an object of mutual interest. It facilitates cooperative coordination and shared attention, further supporting the development of joint intentionality and social cognition in the child.

Question 46

Joint intentionality as a form of social regulation by Tomasello

Answer 46

Joint Intentionality
Motivation: the motivation to socially affiliate and bond with other individuals (especially adults) by sharing/aligning psychological states (emotions, goals attention, knowledge) with them.

Cognition: the cognitive capacity to creats a joint agent “we” with other individuals, creating the possibility of taking the perspective of others, including recursively (aka the dual-level structure), and relating to others second-personally as equals.

Question 47

What marks the transition from joint intentionality to collective intentionality in child development?

Answer 47

The transition from joint intentionality to collective intentionality occurs around the age of three, when children begin to understand that many cultural practices and norms exist independently of individual preferences and are shared by all members of their community.

Question 48

Explain the concept of intentional affordances in child development.

Answer 48

Intentional affordances refer to the purpose and meaning infused into cultural artifacts and practices by their designers and users. Children learn to understand and utilize intentional affordances through imitation, guided instruction, and collaborative learning, enabling them to become cultural beings.

Question 49

Describe the role of linguistic communication in child development.

Answer 49

Linguistic communication emerges around one year of age and plays a crucial role in child development. It extends from gesture communication and enables children to share knowledge, emotions, and attitudes with others. Through linguistic communication, children enter the collectively intentional world of their linguistic community and acquire cultural knowledge, norms, and attitudes.

Question 50

What is the significance of role-reversal imitation in child development?

Answer 50

Role-reversal imitation, where children teach others after being taught themselves, contributes to the internalization of cultural knowledge and norms. Through this process, children develop self-regulation mechanisms based on transmitted cultural prescriptions, facilitating their integration into the cultural world of adults.

Question 51

What is the role of collaborative learning in child development according to Tomasello?

Answer 51

Collaborative learning, which typically starts around 5-6 years of age, involves two or more peers exploring ideas or toys together without an authority figure present. Through collaborative learning, children co-construct knowledge, rules, and norms, testing and individualizing cultural knowledge acquired from adults.

Question 52

How does linguistic communication contribute to cooperative interactions between children and adults?

Answer 52

Linguistic communication, emerging around one year of age, enables children to express their needs, share information, and convey attitudes towards objects or ideas. Through cooperative communicative acts with adults, children acquire language skills, enter the collectively intentional world of their linguistic community, and learn cultural knowledge, norms, and attitudes.

Question 53

Collective Intentionality

Answer 53

Motivation: the group-minded motivation to affiliate with and care for social group by respecting and conforming to (aligning with) its conventions and norms.

Cognition: the cognitive capacity to form a group minded “we” and so to participate in conventions, norms, and institutions, and to view these things from ‘objective’ and normative perspective

Question 54

What is Tomasello’s broad understanding of morality?

Answer 54

Tomasello defines morality as how individuals work things out with others using cooperation and consideration for others’ interests, rather than relying on power and authority. For children, this includes cooperative behaviors, sharing, helping others, and considering others’ perspectives.

Question 55

How does joint intentionality contribute to the development of toddlers’ morality?

Answer 55

Joint intentionality forms the basis of second-person morality in toddlers, where cooperation and collaboration become essential. Toddlers understand that working with others leads to better results and derive pleasure from being with others. Tomasello’s experiments demonstrate that toddlers exhibit intrinsic helping behaviors and sympathy towards others, driven not by rewards but by a natural tendency towards cooperation and sociality.

Question 56

How does Tomasello define the three forms of intentionality in relation to morality development?

Answer 56

Tomasello identifies three forms of intentionality: individual, joint, and collective. Individual intentionality involves self-interests, joint intentionality fosters cooperation and collaboration, and collective intentionality leads to norm-based morality, where cultural norms are internalized and followed.

Question 57

What role does collective intentionality play in the transition to norm-based morality?

Answer 57

Collective intentionality marks the transition to norm-based morality, where cultural norms are internalized and followed. Children between 3 to 6 years old start demanding that others adhere to these norms and experience shame or guilt when they or others violate them. They may also feel pride when they meet normative expectations.

Question 58

Stages of moral development:

Answer 58

1. Individual intentionality:
   Motivation- Self-interest and protection of self-interest

Manifestation- Actions or play are focused on receiving personal rewards and benefits, sometimes at the expense of others. Usually, such behaviour is interpreted as a child’s self-centeredness or even egoism.

2. Joint intentionality: the second-person morality
   Motivation-Cooperation with others to achieve joint goals; intrinsic motivation of being together with others and working with them and for them

Manifestation- Cooperation and commitment, sympathy and helping behaviour, equality and sharing

3. Collective intentionality: the norm-based morality
   Motivation- Social motivation to follow norms and be accepted by others; the regulation through internalization of generalized others.

Manifestation- Demanding that others follow the rules; experiencing guilt and/or shame when oneself or others violate the norms; experiencing pride when meeting normative expectations of others

Question 59

What did Callaghan and colleagues investigate regarding child development across cultures?

Answer 59

Callaghan and colleagues examined children’s socio-cognitive skills development across cultures, including their intentions, attention, understanding of others’ attention, ability to share intentions and attention, and skills in comprehending and using symbols.

Question 60

What was the general conclusion of the study conducted by Callaghan and colleagues?

Answer 60

The study found that by the age of 24 months, children from Canada, India, and Peru reached nearly the same level of socio-cognitive skills. However, the trajectories of development differed across cultures, with Canadian children excelling in manipulating symbolic stimuli and Indian and Peruvian children showing slight advantages in collaboration tasks.

Question 61

How do cultural environments influence early childhood development?

Answer 61

Cultural environments shape early childhood development, with regular, consistent, and caring relationships with adults being crucial. While parenting styles and environmental stimulation may impact developmental trajectories, the ultimate results are similar across cultures. Children universally start understanding others, learning language, conversing, and developing a sense of self around the same age.

Question 62

Describe the stages proposed by the theory of shared intentionality and their universality.

Answer 62

The theory of shared intentionality proposes three stages – individual, joint, and collective intentionality – which build the basis for cultural appropriation. These stages are considered universal, with children around the world reaching similar milestones in socio-cognitive development before transitioning to learning and internalizing their own cultural knowledge, skills, customs, and regulations around the age of seven or eight.

Question 63

The behaviourist explanation of human development

Answer 63

applies the main postulates of behaviourist theories, which suggest that constellations of reinforcements, rewards, and punishments shape human behaviour and its development.

Question 64

The cross-cultural approach to human development

Answer 64

aims at studying culturally different child-care practices and how they relate to becoming human. It is also called comparative developmental psychology because it focuses on performing comparative analyses of the practices and trajectories of human development that exist in various cultural communities.

Question 65

The cultural intelligence hypothesis

Answer 65

states that humans possess a specialized proclivity toward social and cultural regulatory processes (social learning, communication, and the ‘theory of mind’).

Question 66

The developmental niche

Answer 66

The human developmental niche consists of a set of regulative mechanisms that guide parental behaviours according to the prescribed communal models for parenting in a culture. These models and theories create environmental settings wherein the child’s inherited social, cognitive, and cultural predispositions are able to unfold successfully. Tomasello called Culture the “species-typical and species-unique ‘ontogenetic niche’ for human development”

Question 67

The mechanism of human development

Answer 67

is a set of causal processes of diverse natures (genetic, neurophysiological, psychological, social and cultural) that determine and guide the development of the child’s mind, body, and behaviour at every moment of his or her life. Written accounts of these mechanisms and the empirical evidence that supports these accounts constitute the theories of human development.

Question 68

The nativist approach

Answer 68

representatives claim that human abilities and their development pathways are innate and predetermined by humans’ genetic make-up – in other words, by their inherited developmental programmes.

Question 69

Natural and cultural lines of development (by Vygotsky):

Answer 69

The natural line of development unfolds based on the elementary inherited developmental programs responsible for the emergence of the “rudimentary” forms of perception, attention, reasoning, and memory. In turn, the cultural line of development transforms these elementary forms into higher mental processes.

Question 70

The Piagetian theory of cognitive development

Answer 70

states that a child’s mental development (primarily cognitive) happens because of the child’s continued exploration of and interactions with the physical world. Two processes – assimilation and accommodation – form the mechanisms of cognitive development. The quest for cognitive equilibrium continuously drives the child’s actions toward examining the world and its cognitive apprehension.

Question 71

Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of human development

Answer 71

places culture and social interactions between children and adults at the centre of human development. According to Vygotsky, the child continuously interacts with this socio-symbolic world. These interactions are mediated, first, by adults and, subsequently, by their peers. The child’s social interactions constitute the vehicle through which knowledge, traditions, modes of thought, prescriptions for actions and many other achievements of the child’s cultural community are transmitted to the child.

Question 72

Intentionality

Answer 72

In the context of ontogenetic development, individual intentionality occurs when the child sets their own goals, executes efforts to achieve them, uses different means for these achievements, and experiences satisfaction when accomplishing such tasks. Joint intentionality is built on the child’s ability to perceive and understand others as intentional agents like him or herself. Collective intentionality occurs when communal cultural norms regulate the child’s behaviours. With collective intentionality, there is not just an interpersonal common ground (as in joint intentionality) but cultural and communal common ground. This is the common ground shared with all members of the community.

Question 73

Internalization

Answer 73

According to Wertsch (1985), “Vygotsky viewed internalization as a process whereby certain aspects of patterns of activity that had been performed on an external plane come to be executed on an internal plane” (pp. 61-62). In turn, Tomasello suggested that internalization is based on role-reversing imitation.