1. Cultural Psychology Babies African interaction (describe first 45 s)–
African clip (trailer style)
Full movie Babies–
Babies (Africa, Japan, San Francisco, Mongolia)
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2. Cross-cultural research: Goals and methods
Culture as an independent variable that ‘acts on’ people
Previously developed and standardized research methods are applied to various cultures (e.g., Piagetian tasks, Strange Situation)
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3. Culture specific versus universal features of development
Attachment
Cultural variations in rates of insecure attachment forms, but across all cultures secure attachment is predominant style (van IJzendoorn & Sagi, 2001)
Attachment classifications have been consistently coded across cultures.
Van IJzendoorn MH, Kroonenberg PM: Cross-cultural consistency of coding the strange situation. Infant Behavior & Development 1990, 13:
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4. Individual development is how cultures continue
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5. Cultural Psychology
All social and emotional development occurs in a cultural context
Culture involves shared beliefs and practices which unite communities and differentiate them from other communities
What may appear to be a universal feature of development, is often one of myriad, cultural solutions to a problem
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6. Cultural Psychology
All social and emotional development occurs in a cultural context
Culture involves shared beliefs and practices which unite communities and differentiate them from other communities
What may appear to be a universal feature of development, is often one of myriad, cultural solutions to a problem
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7. Examples What to do when baby cries Where should baby sleep
Who should play with baby
Who should take care of baby
What about rambunctious toddlers
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8. Cultural Psychology (Cole, 1996)
Culture does not act on people but instead is the “medium of human life”
An individual is fully embedded within his/her culture
Measurement must be based on locally derived procedures
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9. Efe infant: Multiple, simultaneous relationships
Influenced by physical, social ecological, cultural factors
 sense of self incorporating other people
Not initially focused on one person that progresses to other relationships.
Tronick, E. Z., Morelli, G. A., & Ivey, P. K. (1992). The Efe forager infant and toddler's pattern of social relationships: Multiple and simultaneous.
Developmental Psychology, 28(4),
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10. Messinger

11. Infants’ Social Experiences in Three African Sociocultural Contexts
Otto et al., 2016

12. Introduction – Cultural Context of Development
“Developmental niche” is made up of three systems:
Cultural variations in the physical environment and social settings
Cultural customs, routines, and childrearing practices
Caretakers’ cultural models (shared belief and meaning systems)
Caregiving behaviors are biologically preprogrammed and yet are still shaped by cultural priorities.
The authors focus on the different cultural contexts of development, they talk about the “developmental niche” in which children are raised… this is made up of three systems:
More specifically they look at how caregiver-child interactions are responsible for culturally shaping development
Caregiving behaviors are biologically preprogrammed and yet are still shaped by cultural priorities.
-evolved responses to childrearing challenges
-yet caregiving behaviors still differ in order to teach children culturally appropriate skills/competencies
Bjorklund & Pellegrini, 2000; Super & Harkness, 1986

13. Introduction – Caregiving and Poverty
Poverty and adversity negatively impact caregiving
Environmental challenges
Related stress and mental health concerns
Caregivers may be less responsive to infant’s needs
Interventions exist, but focus on concepts from middle-class European American parenting styles
Prototypical styles of parenting:
Distal parenting style
Proximal parenting style
Poverty and adversity negatively impact caregiving
Environmental challenges (e.g., homelessness, crime, lack of access to care)
Related stress and mental health concerns
Caregivers may be less responsive to infant’s needs which could result in developmental deficits
While interventions exist, may focus on concepts from middle-class European American parenting styles which are not as prevalent in more rural or other sociocultural contexts (e.g. focusing mainly on mother-infant interactions and interventions, where in other cultures the child may be more communally raised)
To overcome any potential cultural bias, the authors focus on two prototypical styles of parenting
Prototypical styles of parenting:
Distal parenting style- emphasizes object stimulation (e.g., joint attention processes), face-to- face exchanges (e.g., mutual eye contact), and tactile stimulation (e.g., touching and caressing)- more prevalent in urban European American middle-class
Proximal parenting style- close body contact, body stimulation, and nursing to regulate distress- more prevalent in rural traditional communities
Most research explores parenting styles within more traditional urban or rural areas.
Newland et al., 2013; Vernon-Feagans et al., 2012; Walker et al., 2011

14. Current Study
Explores social experiences of infants (3-month-old) in peri-urban contexts of poverty and adversity compared to infants growing up in poor rural or middle-class urban contexts
Focus on three sociocultural contexts in Africa (N = 76)
Urban middle-class sample- 25 mothers
Rural traditional subsistence-based sample- 22 mothers
Peri-urban context (rural-urban transition zone)- high levels of poverty and adversity- 29 mothers
Urban middle-class sample- 25 mothers (own homes, private medical care, live as nuclear families, employ nannies, infant mortality is low)
Rural traditional subsistence-based sample- 22 mothers (substance farmers, live as extended families – wife moves in with husband’s family, usually live in compound like communities, child-care is communal, infant mortality is 59/1,000
Peri-urban context (rural-urban transition zone)- high levels of poverty and adversity- 29 mothers (high levels of poverty, high rates of HIV, violence, instability, unemployment at 50%, low incomes, live in temporary housing/shacks, often w/o electricity, dispersion of family due to poverty, rising number of single moms, social networks are unstable and change rapidly)

15. Hypotheses Middle-class urban sample: Rural sample: Peri-urban sample:
Mothers would be dominant interaction partners, using a distal parenting style
Rural sample:
People other than mother would be important interaction partners, using a proximal parenting style
Peri-urban sample:
Spend the least amount of time with mothers or other social partners (due to economic and social pressures), and result in low levels of both distal and proximal parenting styles

16. Methods Spot observations – unobtrusive observations
-Video coding was used in the urban and peri-urban contexts
-Live coding was used in the rural context (10 sec obs, 20 sec coding)

17. Results
Mothers were more frequently present in middle-class, urban sample when compared to the peri-urban and rural samples
Others were more often caretakers in the rural context compared to the other two samples
Urban and peri-urban infants were more often alone than rural infants
No difference in the groups in the time they spent in presence of both mothers and others

18. Results
Rural infants were in body contact with others significantly more than the other two contexts
Urban (middle-class) mothers used objects sig. more than other two samples
Infants had more face-to-face contact in urban and peri-urban samples than the rural context
Peri-urban infants had more face-to-face contact than rural infants
Tactile stimulation was greater in urban than rural mother, however, others used more tactile stim than in rural context than they did in the urban

19. Results
Crying urban infants had more body contact with their mothers than peri-urban infants
Crying rural infants had body contact with others more often than other two samples
Face-to-face interaction was significantly greater in urban and peri-urban mothers and others compared to rural mothers
Urban mothers used tactile stimulation more than rural mothers
Rural others used tactile stim more than the other two contexts
Sleeping:
Rural infants had more body contact and nursing than other groups
In general, mothers invested more time in body contact and nursing

20. Take away Context impacts development through caregiving
Urban and rural contexts follow prototypical models of child care
Infants in peri-urban settings have different socioemotional experiences (minimal caretaking style, not prototypical)

21. Discussion Questions Strengths/Weaknesses of Research Methods?
What factors do you think account for minimal caretaking style in peri- urban communities? And why?
How can we better research/address the different caretaking style seen in more high-risk contexts?
Are you convinced? Do we need a way to assess normative and deviant development in high-risk contexts?

22. The development of mothers’ contingencies
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23. Smile imitation differs by 6 weeks1
Wörmann, V., Holodynski, M., Kärtner, J., & Keller, H. (2012). A cross-cultural comparison of the development of the social smile: A longitudinal study of maternal and infant imitation in 6- and 12-week-old infants. Infant Behavior and Development, 35(3), doi: /j.infbeh
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24. Social Smiling Cross- Culturally
Wormann et al., 2014-
: 1- socially bid for mothers smiles by smiling more (Still-face parading); 2- first signs of coyness at this age? Smiling gaze aversion has been shown in 10 weeks before; 3- other developmental patterns may be overlapping (ex attention to other things)
At 6 weeks, mutual gazing  duration of infant smile enhanced by maternal smiling in both cultures
Later, infant imitation of mom smile  duration of infant smile enhanced by mother smile imitation in German before Cameroon sample
MK Clennan

25. Privileged Treatment of Toddlers: Cultural Aspects of Individual Choice and Responsibility. Christine Mosier and Barbara Rogoff (2003)
The study:
16 Mayan families from San Pedro, Guatemala
16 middle class families from Salt Lake City, Utah
Interactions between toddlers (14 to 20 mo) and siblings (3 to 5 yrs)
Interview with mother about child-rearing, social behavior, etc.
Given 9 objects to toddlers and siblings to manipulate, with mother’s help
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Collectivism v. Individualism?
Treatment of toddlers: Special treatment or same rules for sharing?
Age of understanding
Emphasis on individuality and choice promotes cooperation that is voluntary as opposed to guided by parental control

26. Proportions of Events Regarding Access to an Object
Salt Lake City
San Pedro
Toddlers eventually gained access to the object
.59 (.20)
.87 (.09)
Mothers endorsed toddler’s
privileged position
.43 (.24)
.63 (.22)
nonprivileged position
.25 (.13)
.04 (.05)
Siblings endorsed toddler’s
.45 (.19)
.80 (.09)
.54 (.21)
.19 (.09)
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27. Guatemalan Mayan mothers
“almost never overruled their toddlers' objections to or insistence on an activity—they attempted to persuade but did not force the child to cooperate toddlers were not compelled to stop hitting others.
[Toddler] hitting was not regarded as motivated by an intent to harm because they were expected to be too young to understand the consequences of their acts for other people.”
Mosier & Rogoff, 2003
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28. Attention to Interactions Directed to Others
Cultural variation in children’s attentiveness
Indigenous vs. westernized learning styles
Guatemalan Mayan & European American
Pueblo basic vs. Mexican high school
Maternal education level and cultural traditions
Toy construction paradigm
Correa-Chavez, M., & Rogoff, B. (2009). Children's attention to interactions directed to others: Guatemalan mayan and european american patterns. Dev Psychol, 45(3), doi: [pii] /a
Correa-Chavez & Rogoff, 2009
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29. Kids’ Attention to Interactions Directed to Others
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30. Turtle task 24- to 31-month-olds
Japanese mothers more frequently assisted their toddlers in fitting a shape before the toddlers had tried to fit the shape on their own (interdependence);
American toddlers did not attempt to fit more shapes on their own (autonomy);
More American toddlers left the task than did Japanese toddlers (autonomy).
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31. Figure
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32. Video: Turtle task American National (00) Japanese American (11:10)
Japanese National (19:25)
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