development across cultures Flashcards
what are assumptions in developmental psychology?
development has a specific, universal timeline
development follows a consistent procedure, regardless of external factors
methods used to study development are appropriate across different cultures
what is ethnocentrism?
evaluating other cultures according to standards of one’s own culture
how is there bias in who does the research?
experimenters ask research questions relevant to their own cultural experience
how is there bias in who participates in research?
theories are only confirmed by participants sharing the same cultural experience
what does Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model consist of?
child
microsystem= direct contact with child
mesosystem= individual microsystems interact
exosystem= extended family and neighbours
macrosystem= attitudes and ideologies of culture
chronosystem= environmental changes occuring over the life course
what does WEIRD stand for?
western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic
what is culture?
the social behaviour and norms of human society
what are the foundations of culture?
stable across time
vary across communities
cumulative
shaped by social learning
how do children learn about culture?
social learning:
-emotion learning
-natural pedagogy
-questioning
-high fidelity imitation
what is imitation?
learn to do an act from seeing it done
what is mimicry?
person unintentionally imitates another person
what is high fidelity imitation?
copying another person’s action, despite it being visibly unnecessary
how is overimitation demonstrated experimentally?
series of necessary and unnecessary actions demonstrated on transparent and opaque puzzle boxes
children copied everything in both opaque and transparent conditions
can sometimes be more important to learn social convention than causality
how is imitation shown to be a global phenomenon?
children/adults engage in overimitation in the ‘wild’
demonstrated in many counties around the world, including in indigenous groups
what are three ways in which culture impacts social development?
ownership reasoning
‘norms’ around sharing
sharing and family structure
what is ownership reasoning?
how we relate to material possessions
ownership develops around 2 years of age
how was ownership and reasoning investigated?
3-5 year old children from different socio-cultural environments
told a story about 2 dolls who walk together and end up fighting for possession of an object
by age 5- attributed ownership in creation and familiarity conditions
children from USA and China more likely to assign ownership to poor puppet
how were fairness norms investigated?
children played in pairs
sweets distributed on apparatus
actor chooses to accept or reject distribution (rejecting= none for anyone)
low levels of rejection for fair offers
as children get older, tend to reject unfair offers where they are disadvantaged
Mexican, Chinese etc unlikely to reject unfair advantaging them
how was sharing investigated?
7/8 year old Indian children participated in an interview aimed to promote independence or interdependence
took part in a sharing game, where they could choose between taking two for themselves, or equally dividing resources
independence priming= chose selfish option more frequently
interdependence priming= only more prosocial if child part of extended family
family level variables more important that country variable
