CULTURE, CONTEXT AND SOCIALISATION

LECTURE OUTLINE  Introduction  Culture and context as meaning * Parental threat * Parental control and acceptance  Features of context * Societal values * Parental goals, beliefs, values  The developmental niche  Conclusions

Parental Threat, Control and Acceptance  Azuma (1986)  Trommsdorff (1985)  Lau and colleagues (1987, 1990)  Kagitcabasi (1970)

Features of context: Societal values  Children’s work –Whiting and Whiting (1975) –Nsamenang (1992)  Value of Children Study

Features of context: Parental goals  Achievement expectations Hess et al. (1980)  Obedience and conformity Levine et al. (1994)  Class differences Kohn (1969)

Features of context: Parental beliefs and values  Maternal role perceptions (Shand, 1985)  Parents as teachers (e.g., Chao, 1994; Laosa, 1980)

The Developmental Niche (Super & Harkness)

The Developmental Niche: Assumptions  The child’s environment is organised as part of a cultural system  The child has an inborn disposition

The Developmental Niche: Subsystems  Physical and social setting  Culturally regulated customs of child- rearing  Psychology of caregiver

The Developmental Niche: Operating Principles  Three components operate as a system  Each subsystem is functionally embedded in other aspects of human ecology  Each subsystem is involved in a process of mutual adaptation with the individual child

The Developmental Niche: Framework for Empirical Research  Peer relations in Canada and China (Chen, Rubin & Li, 1995)

Concluding Questions  Why is it important to understand human development in a cultural context?  Can theory and research on culture and development be integrated into an over- arching conceptual framework?