Culture: A symbolic and behavioral inheritance received from out of the historical/ancestral past... –Symbolic inheritance: A cultural community’s received ideas and understandings, both implicit and explicit, about persons, society, nature, and the metaphysical realm... –Behavioral inheritance: Routine or institutionalized family life, social, economic, and political practices

Individuals are active agents in the perpetuation of their symbolic and behavioral inheritance –Why? Ideas, values, and practices that are inherited appear to members of a cultural community as “right”, “true”, “moral”, “rational”, “normal”, etc.

How does cultural psychology view the role of culture in development? –Culture is the “medium” of development Biological and “universal” features of the environment interact within this medium Views individual psychology and culture as interdependent and mutually active Challenge is to “soften” the contrast between individual and context

Cross-Cultural Psychology –Culture is conceptualized as an independent variable acting on the dependent variable of individual psychology –Methodologies developed in one cultural context are “imported” into other cultures with little or no modification Ex: Strange Situation (parent-infant attachment)

In contrast, according to cultural psychology –Cultural ideas and practices are not separate from observed behavior Therefore, cannot apply culture as an interpretive framework after “behavior” has occurred (i.e., can’t treat culture as an independent variable) Individual level cannot be separated from the cultural level in understanding psychological phenomena

–Methodologies are developed within a particular culture

What are the advantages or disadvantages of... –Developing methodologies within a particular culture? –Importing methodologies from one culture for use in other cultures? Ex: Strange Situation as a measure of infant attachment security

Attachment Behaviors: –Behaviors that function to bring the infant/child physically closer to the caregiver Exs: crying, following, clinging

Why is parent-child attachment important? –First relationship that infants experience May serve as a model for other relationships May affect the development of self-concept

Normative Development of Attachment: Ethological Attachment Theory (J. Bowlby) Attachment behavior evolved because it is adaptive for survival –Keeps infants physically close to caregivers and away from danger –Increases the chances of infant survival and reproductive success

Evidence (Ethological Attachment Theory): Animals that stray from a group are much more vulnerable to attack Attachment behavior across a variety of species (including humans): –Occurs more frequently in those most vulnerable to predators (e.g., the young) –Increases in frightening situations

Strange Situation Mother and infant in laboratory playroom Stranger enters, talks to mothers, engages infant Mother leaves (stranger stays) Mother returns (stranger leaves) Mother leaves (baby alone) Stranger returns Mother returns

Secure (B) –About 60-65% of American middle-class samples –May or may not be distressed by separation –Respond positively to parent’s return If distressed by separation, easily comforted by parent and able to return to play (parent = secure base)

Insecure-Avoidant (A) –15-20% of American middle-class samples –Usually not distressed by separation from parent –Avoid the parent during reunion (to different degrees)

Insecure-Resistant or Ambivalent (C) –10-15% of American middle-class samples –Usually distressed by separation –Show a combination of angry, resistant behavior and proximity-seeking behavior during reunion with parent –Have difficulty being comforted by parent and returning to play

Antecedents of Attachment Security (in American samples) –Sensitive caregiving Considerable debate about the relation between sensitivity and attachment security –Infant temperament Also controversial –Neither factor is strongly related to attachment security

Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attachment Increased incidence of avoidant (A) attachments in North Germany Increased incidence of ambivalent- resistant attachments (C) in Japanese and Israeli samples (esp. infants on kibbutzim)

Why? Inappropriate implementation or use of the Strange Situation procedure to assess attachment –Prolonging separations to the point of extreme infant distress (Japanese samples) –Inappropriate measure for some cultures –Japanese infants rarely experience separation from caregivers; Israeli infants reared on kibbutzim rarely encounter strangers

In both cases, argument is that the procedure is too stressful for these infants, resulting in increased incidence of ambivalent-resistant attachments