Culture & Development Flashcards
Cross-cultural psychology
- culture as an independent variable
- generally compares different cultural groups
- uses measurements in an experimental setting
Cultural psychology
- culture as a medium of human life consisting of shared knowledge, symbols, and practices
- study between and within cultural groups
- uses ethnographic methods, derived from local practices
Conceptions of Culture: Edward Tylor
“father of anthropology”
o believed culture was the part of the environment humans created
• culture = patterns of behaviors that are passed from one generation to the next via extra-somatic means
o it is socially inherited
• cognitive revolution changed the way we see culture,
o no longer a background feature – only existing in the mind,
o now “culture-as-knowledge”
• knowledge, beliefs, present in the body and mind
o it is a feature one needs knowledge of in order to be accepted within a society
• attempt to by-pass the debate of culture being an idea vs. a material
Culture: Shweder and Weisner
o Shweder
• culture is both symbolic (mental) and behavioral (material)
o Weisner
• agreed with Shweder but added that cultural influences of the material aspect derived from routines of family life
• in addition, individuals and their activities involve reciprocal relationship
Culture: Vygotsky
• ideal-material dichotomy
• culture is a medium and is material and mental, and is constantly transformed by older generations via artifacts
• artifacts are both subjective (mental) and objective (material)
• allow for coordination between each other and the environment
o how to act, respond, behave
• since culture evolves with its people, “history is in the present”
o therefore, biology and culture have reciprocal relationship
garden metaphor of culture
o in order to develop crops (people), one needs the proper tools (artifacts) and knowledge
o one must be aware of the immediate environment, such as the garden bed (social environment) as well as the greater environment, which are independent
Developmental Niche, Super & Harkness
o a child’s location within the proximal socio-cultural-ecological environment
• composed of physical/social setting; local childrearing and socialization practices; psychological characteristics of parents
cultural evolution, as proposed by Tylor
cultures can be classified past sophistication, organization, etc
o believes in doctrine of psychic unity – everyone has the same potential for learning cultural traditions, but we are limited by surroundings
Boas proposal
o every culture is a combo of local developed features and some borrowed from surrounding cultures
• we can compare cultures, but must recognize we must view them within their context
• packed variable – the idea it is hard to investigate the origin of artifacts due to their complex consistency
The Socially Distributed Nature of Culture
• need to recognize the importance of cross-cultural differences
o such as Bronfenbrenner’s model of levels of the environment
• triple helix approach in order to truly understand a culture
o history = cultural evolution
o phylogensis = biological evolution
o ontogenesis = child development
• one most be aware of the bio-social-behavioral shifts across time
Culture at birth
o mother + child’s ontogeny → converts abstract culture into one that is concrete
• parent’s understanding of culture immediately begins to shape the child’s ontogeny, such as sticking to culturally-assigned gender roles
• culture is a continuum overlaps between generations
Culture & Infancy (birth to ~2.5 years)
o co-regulation of culture = continuous mutual adjustment of actions/intentions
• although evidence exists that infants seem to be “programmed” to accept any culture, but this changes via exposure to a specific culture
o language (one of the more obvious early cultural experience)
• culture gives meaning to formats and scripting of language
• “motherese” – simplified language that is present across all cultures
Attachment & Culture
• present within the phylogenetic timeline, influenced by biology and culture
• we learn best from those we are attached to
• includes verbal, social, and cognitive abilities
• cross-cultural differences in attachment
• evidence seems to state whether these differences can be blamed on an entire culture, since the ratio of attachment styles are found across cultures
o ratios first found by Ainsworth and Bowlby
• 21% type A
• 65% type B
• 14% type C
o although due to changes in parental-styles across time, these percentages have varied leading to,
• period of strict attachment = “epochal derailments”
• attachment styles
• type A = anxious-avoidant
• type B = securely attached
• type C = ambivalent-resistant
• type D = disorganized
Culture & Early Childhood (2.5 to 6 years)
o 2-3 yrs = “knee children” || 4-5 yrs = “yard children”
o from age 3, every day, the interactions are intended to prepare the child for school
• preschool period
• teacher intervention techniques are culturally based
o language
• Chomsky’s language acquisition device (LAD)
• “mental module” = specialized mental organ that handles a specific type of information (i.e. Broca’s area)
• “skeletal system” = referring to the biological constraints on language
• includes culture + neuroplasticity
o theory of the mind
• evident via “false-belief” tasks, where a child is able to understand a person’s beliefs despite the fact it contradicts the facts
• Whorfian hypothesis = one’s language determines one’s theory of the world
o SES
o understanding of biology
• naïve psychology (that a child is limited in identify complex differences due to lack of resources ) is wrong
• unfortunately, many advanced cultures tend to create a taxonomic hierarchy for different groups of people
o which limits child’s understanding
Culture & Middle Childhood
o school
• start of school, often viewed by many cultures as “age of reason”
• European model of institutionalized public basic school (IPBS) is most popular form of schooling
• graduation rate is just one factor that varies across cultures
• some cultures expect the child to help at home instead of attending school
• the more active the parent here, typically, the better the student
• parents begin to treat their children different when they start school
o development of cognitive processes, all influenced by culture
• logical operations
• though some falsely believe this could only be developed within a school
• memory
• ability to analyze language
• ability to classify
Culture and Cognitive Development – Michael Tomasello
• in order to understand culture we need to examine culture from an
o evolutionary approach
o ontogenetic approach
• examine chimps, and how they learn via observation
o they can learn how an action can effect an environment
• not how to perform an exact action = emulation learning
• human, on the other hand, can learn the precise techniques
o goal driven, while observing = cultural learning
• all learn via cultural transmission though, labeled “nongenetic transfer of information”
• for humans: cultural learning → cultural evolution → production of artifacts
o allows progression of our species
• one person invents, the next modifies and improves it for the species
• human cultural learning
o starts 9-12 months
• begin to engage in gaze following, social referencing, and imitative learning
o ~2 years old
• begin to make use of artifacts
• understanding the goal and the means to achieve it
o cultural learning requires infants to identify with adults
• not just mimic them, but understand them
• learning through others, not just from others
o autistic children have trouble understanding other’s intentions
• have trouble with imitative learning as well as cultural learning
o to learn a linguistic symbols, requires understand of
• generality, perspective, and function
• a deeper understanding is needed
• cultural cognition
o evolution has altered human social cognition and thereby has altered human cultural transmission
o allowed for the creation of advanced artifacts, including language, and social histories
o modern human cognition = evolution + culture
The Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging and Culture – Denise Park and Angela Gutschess
• differences in cognitive functions can be blamed, at least partially, on culture
o interplay of experience (via culture) + neurobiology (via aging)
o the exact influence/role of culture on neurological decline is difficult to pinpoint
• behavioral evidence
o important to note similarities across all brains due to aging
• decreased efficiency, speed, working and long-term memory
• cognitive hardware or mechanics
• knowledge remains preserved
• cognitive pragmatics or software
o evidence of cultural impact varies
• neurocognitive functioning due to aging
o neurological functioning, comparing old and young
• some clear differences, and yet there are clearly similarities as well
• culture and neurological differences
o culture seems to function as a moderator variable during cognitive processing
o evidence of activation of different parts of the brain depending on culture
• are these differences hardwired, or simply reflect cultural strategy differences?
early cultural interactions affect our future
- the way the parents hold a child (facing the world vs. facing them)
- a parent’s expectations of a child influences the world around him/her
- parents selectively reinforce specific elements in the child’s world
- attachment influences behaviors
- attachment styles are then absorbed or repelled by the child later on in life
- context, social climate, political climate, all influential
Tomasello (general)
o culture is a ratchet
• locks knowledge base in place, to be built upon by succeeding generations
• encourages healthy development
• early example in humans, we copy the actions of others
o emulation = copying, but not perfectly
• involves understanding the outcome, but not the exact procedure
o language helps prepare us for the environmental interaction
