Week 3

Question 1

Subsistent pattern

Answer 1

How they get the food they eat

Baka- hunter-gatherer

Question 2

Socialization practices

Answer 2

Western

-very dramatic age segregation

Question 3

Baka

Answer 3

Setting: Cameroon
Subsistent pattern: hunter-gatherer
Socialization practices:
-gender roles: more fluid than settles communities
-age integration: different leaning between peers and those of diff ages
-childcare: other children often involved in caregiving
-child participation in authentic activities: seeing what grown ups do, makes transition to adulthood smoother and less stressful
Consequences of human development:
-physical abilities: involvement in physical activities, lead to the further development
-social skills: older children give advice to younger, instead of adults
-cognitive skills: problem solving

Question 4

Bias

Answer 4

Systematic factors that affect the validity of the measures taken

Goal- minimize bias

Types:

• construct (main idea) bias
• > shyness (US vs. Asia) measurement bias
• method bias (sample, instrument, response style, administration)
• item bias
• > can be subtle, assumed to be typical of world

Question 5

Equivalence

Answer 5

Level of comparability across groups

Goal- evaluate equivalence

Types:

• construct equivalence
• > cultures may not practice X in same way
• measurement equivalence
• > when absolute measurements differ
• score equivalence
• > compare final scores between cultures
• > NEVER sufficiently informative

Question 6

Emic approach

Answer 6

Study culture on its own terms
Allows culture to tell own story
Much observation

Question 7

Etic approach

Answer 7

Take outsider point of view and see culture relatively
Much of cross-cultural research

Types:
Imposed etic: puts culture on other society (exactly the same)
Derived etic: Imposes basic ideas of cultue on another, but uses something more familiar to that culture. Materials themselves can have an impact on how problem is solves (familiarity)

Question 8

Adoption

Answer 8

Like imposed etic
Assumes groups are equivalent
Goals- want direct comparison on scores

Question 9

Adaptation

Answer 9

Adapt it to the culture
Like derived etic
Goal- want some comparison and some local info
Much of cross-cultural research

Question 10

Assembly

Answer 10

Like emic approach
Observe
Goal- want to maximize local validity

Question 11

Ethical claims

Answer 11

Social science is a western enterprise, shaped by western ideologies

• Western assumption bias
• > questions asked
• > interpretations made of the answers
• > evaluations of the behavior of others
• > kind of respect we show to others
• Researchers carry these ideologies into their work, often unknowingly
• > how we do research in other communities
• > is participation truly voluntary?
• > how do participants benefit form the research?
• Research and politics
• > goals and consequences of cross-cultural research
• > rationalization of intervention research (use norm of middle class european american family)
• > how are politics and economics related to what we know and what we think we know? (be skeptical of what you think you know, and what other people think they know)

“As long as social science is dominated by westerners, we will discover only what western ideologies unveil”