WK10: Development Across cultures

Question 1

What are the three common assumptions about dev psych?

Answer 1

1. Development has a specific, universal timeline
2. Development follows a consistent procedure regardless of external factors
3. Methods to study development are appropriate in different cultures

Question 2

What are the problems with the 3 common assumptions?

Answer 2

1. Ethnocentrism = judging others cultures based on ones own social norms
2. Research Bias = researchers favour questions related to their own background
3. Participant Bias = Responses in research may reflect cultural experiences.
4. Cultural bias in dev psych tools: Methods developed and validated within a single culture may lack cultural diversity.

Question 3

What does Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model explain

Answer 3

The child is at the centre of their own ecosystem and the way they develop is shaped by different factors

Question 4

What does Bronfenbrenner’s model consist of?

Answer 4

Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem, Chronosystem

Question 5

What does WEIRD stand for

Answer 5

Western, Educated, Industrilised, Rich, Democratic

Question 6

What does Nielsen, 2017 say about WEIRD research?

Answer 6

• He reviewed 1500 dev psych journals published between 2006-2010
• He found that 90% of participants in these period were from a WEIRD country, despite
  WEIRD countries only being 12% across the world
• shows many answers will be biased to WEIRD culture experiences

Question 7

What is culture?

Answer 7

An umbrella term which encompasses social behaviour and norms of human society

Question 8

What did Leagre and Nielson (2015) say are the foundations of culture

Answer 8

1. Relatively stable over time, but differ among communities
2. Its cumulative (passed through generations)
3. Its shaped by social learning

Question 9

How do children learn about culture? ( Leagre and Harris, 2016)

Answer 9

• emotional learning
• receptivity to demonstration
• questioning
• high fidelity imitation

Question 10

What are the three types of imitation?

Answer 10

Imitation = learning to do an act by seeing it before
Mimicry = occurs when a person unwittingly imitates the behaviour of another person
High fidelity imitation = copying another’s actions despite visible evidence that its unnecessary

Question 11

Over imitation and culture (Homer and Whiten, 2004)

Answer 11

• Child-chimp comparison using puzzle boxes.
• Actions demonstrated on transparent and opaque boxes.
• Transparent box reveals physical consequences; opaque box hides them.
• Chimps copy on opaque, solve efficiently on transparent.
• Children copy on both boxes.
• Children imitate to learn culture, prioritizing social norms over physical cause and effect.

Question 12

Developing and maintaining culture results

Answer 12

• Over-imitation is universal, not a cue.
• Preferentially imitate similar people.
• Global occurrence in diverse societies.
• Essential for culture development.