© 2013 Cengage Learning

Outline  Culture and Temperament  What is Temperament?  The Goodness of Fit between Temperament and Culture  Cross-Cultural Studies on Temperament  Temperament and Learning Culture  Dimensions of Temperament: A Focus on Behavioral Inhibition  Sources behind Temperament Differences

Outline (cont’d.)  Culture and Attachment  Bowlby's Theory of Attachment  Bowlby and Ainsworth's Classification System of Attachment  Cross-Cultural Studies on Attachment  Is Secure Attachment a Universal Ideal?  Temperament and Attachment: A Summary

Outline (cont’d.)  Cognitive Development  Piaget's Theory  Piaget's Theory in Cross-Cultural Perspective  Piaget's Theory: Summary and Discussion  Other Theories of Cognitive Development

Outline (cont’d.)  Moral Reasoning  What is Moral?  Kohlberg's Theory of Morality  Cross-Cultural Studies of Moral Reasoning  Three Ethics Approach to Moral Reasoning  Other Developmental Processes  Conclusion

C ULTURE AND T EMPERAMENT

Culture and Temperament  Process of socialization starts from very first day of life  Characteristics we are born with determine how our caregivers react and interact with us, initiating lifelong process of socialization  Children of different cultures are born with different biological predispositions to learn certain cultural practices

What is Temperament?  Temperament: biologically based style of interacting with world that exists from birth  Easy temperament: adaptable, mild  Difficult temperament: intense, irregular  Slow-to-warm-up: needs time to make transitions

The Goodness of Fit between Temperament and Culture  How well does a child’s temperament match the expectations and values of the parent?  Mismatch: more negative child outcomes are expected  Good match: better child outcomes are expected  Dispositions and behaviors must be considered in relation to specific culture  Same dispositions and behaviors may have different meanings in different cultures

Cross-Cultural Studies on Temperament  If different temperaments at birth, children of different cultures will respond to environment differently  Children of different cultures will also evoke different responses from caregivers and environment  Consequence: fundamental differences in learning, social experiences, worldview, and culture of children as they grow

Temperament and Learning Culture  Differences in infant temperament help parents reinforce cultural practices  Temperament serves as baseline biological predisposition  Cultural differences evident early in life indicate personalities and behaviors valued in adults  Child's temperament and environmental response results in differences in learning, social experiences, behaviors, personalities, and worldviews

Dimensions of Temperament: A Focus on Behavioral Inhibition  Activity level  Smiling and laughter  Fear  Distress to limitations  Soothability  Duration of orienting

Sources Behind Temperament Differences  Developmental contextualism perspective: genetics, reproductive histories, and environmental and cultural pressures over generations  Cultural experiences of mother during pregnancy  Complex interplay between multiple factors such as temperamental styles valued in each culture, specific environmental demands, and physiological aspects of mother

C ULTURE AND A TTACHMENT

Culture and Attachment  Attachment: special bond that develops between infant and caregiver  Quality of attachment has lifelong effects on relationships with loved ones  Attachment provides child with emotional security  Once attached, babies are distressed by separation from caregiver

Bowlby's Theory of Attachment  Infants must have a preprogrammed, biological basis for becoming attached to their caregivers  Smiling and cooing elicits physical attachment behaviors on part of caregiver  Attachment relationship between caregiver and child is survival strategy

Bowlby and Ainsworth's Classification System of Attachment  Tripartite classification system of attachment relationships  Secure: infant distressed when mother leaves but easily comforted when she returns  Ambivalent: infant is distressed when mother leaves but sends mixed signals upon return  Avoidant: not distressed when mother leaves and upon return, avoids reuniting with mother

Cross-Cultural Studies on Attachment  Strange Situation study: infants separated from mothers for a brief period of time  Meaning of separation may differ across cultures  Researchers have questioned appropriateness of different categories of attachment  Maternal sensitivity has not been consistently linked to secure attachment

Is Secure Attachment a Universal Ideal?  Cultures may differ in notion of "ideal" attachment  Attachment relationships in childhood may have long-term consequences into adolescence and adulthood  Early attachment relationships affect quality of peer relationships, ability to develop intimate adult relationships, and how one parents  Attachment between infants and caregivers is universal phenomenon

T EMPERAMENT AND A TTACHMENT : A S UMMARY

Temperament and Attachment: A Summary  Optimal style of attachment in one culture may not necessarily be optimal across all cultures  Examining attachment "network" instead of focusing solely on dyads is of crucial importance  Close interaction between infant’s temperament, attachment with caregiver, and broader environment that contributes to development

C OGNITIVE D EVELOPMENT

Piaget's Theory  Sensorimotor stage: (birth to 2 years)  Children understand by perceiving and doing  Preoperational stage: (2 to 6 or 7 years)  Conservation, centration, irreversibility, egocentrism, and animism  Concrete operations stage: (6 or 7 years to 11)  Thinking skills to work with actual objects and events  Formal operations stage: (11 years through adulthood)  Think logically about abstract concepts

Piaget's Theory in Cross-Cultural Perspective  Piaget's stages occur in same fixed order in other cultures  Variations in ages at which children in different societies reach third and fourth Piagetian stages  Considerable variation in order in which children acquire specific skills within Piaget's stages  Different societies value and reward different skills and behaviors

Piaget's Theory: Summary and Discussion  In some cultures, very few people complete fourth-stage Piagetian tasks  Are Piagetian tasks culturally appropriate?  Do Piagetian tasks depend on previous knowledge and cultural values?  Within-culture differences hinder inferences about differences in cognitive development between cultures  Universality of fourth stage of Piaget's theory of cognitive development is questionable

Other Theories of Cognitive Development  Great divide theory: separates thoughts of Westerners from people in primitive societies  Stage theories judge people from other cultures based on how closely they resemble westerners  People from many cultures prefer own groups and rate them more positively than outsiders  Piaget theory emphasized several concepts important for cognitive development today  “Everyday cognition”: cognition in the context of daily activities within cultural community

M ORAL R EASONING

Moral Reasoning  Moral principles and ethics provide guidelines for people's behaviors with regard to what is appropriate and what is not  Morality is heavily influenced by underlying, subjective, and implicit culture  Morality serves as basis of laws, and thus culture also affects laws of society

What is Moral?  Types of rules children as young as three can differentiate:  Moral: applies to everyone; cannot be changed; based on values  Conventional: applies to certain groups; changeable; based on agreed-upon norms  Personal: applies to individuals; changeable; based on preferences of specific person

Kohlberg's Theory of Morality  Preconventional morality: compliance with rules to avoid punishment and gain rewards  Conventional morality: conformity to rules defined by others' approval or society's rules  Postconventional morality: moral reasoning on basis of individual principles and conscience

Cross-Cultural Studies of Moral Reasoning  Some aspects of Kohlberg's theory of morality are universal  Many studies on moral reasoning raise questions about universal generalizability of Kohlberg's highest stage (postconventional)  Cross-cultural studies have shown that people from different cultures do reason differently about moral dilemmas

Three Ethics Approach to Moral Reasoning  Ethic of autonomy: emphasizes individual rights and justice  Ethic of community: emphasizes interpersonal relationships and community  Ethic of divinity: centrality of religious beliefs and spirituality in moral reasoning

O THER D EVELOPMENTAL P ROCESSES

Other Developmental Processes  Cross-cultural research offers important insights into how differences observed in adults have come to be  Renewed interest in cross-cultural developmental research due to increased interest in culture in all areas of psychology  Cross-cultural studies highlight similarities and differences in development across cultures

C ONCLUSION

Conclusion  Two key issues concerning human development:  Whether developmental pathways are universal or culture specific  How development occurs  All people are born into specific cultures with unique set of characteristics and predispositions  Each culture exerts influence, and in combination with each unique cultural member, produces specific tendencies, trends, and differences in members