Cultural Psychology
Daniel S. Messinger, Ph.D.
Cultural Psychology
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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
Examples
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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
Background
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Social smile first sign of socio-emotional
development
Emerges around second month of life
Maternal emotional behavior acts as a
mechanism
Differs based on culture
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Independent
Interdependent
Results
Discussion
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Overall, there are culturally differential
developmental pathways of social smiles
Do you think there are other mechanisms
that affect social smile?
Do you think this data would look different
if comparing low SES mother-infant pairs
to high SES mother-infant pairs
Physical contact
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Hispanic mothers report touching more
frequently, being more affectionate with their
infants and having more skin-to-skin contact.
Observations: no overall differences in motherinfant touch, but Hispanic mothers showed more
close touch and more close and affectionate
touch compared to Anglo mothers, who showed
more distal touch.
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Infants were 9 months old
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Franco F, Fogel A, Messinger DS, Frazier CA. Cultural
Differences in Physical Contact Between Hispanic and Anglo
Mother-Infant Dyads Living in the United States. Early
Development and Parenting 1996;5(3):119 - 127.
What about Miami?
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Does parental touch differ between
Hispanics and non-Hispanics?
What functions might differences serve?
Autism
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Age of diagnosis
Assortative mating
(Tronick et al. 1987)
Efe People
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Ituri forest of Zaire
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Small communities of a few families
Leaf huts face a communal space
High mortality rates, low fertility
High work load; most gathering is communal
Multiple caregivers, infants engaged with
others half the time
Methods
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Naturalistic, one community at both points
Data gathered at different times
Researchers living in these camps
Some variation in when the observations were made
Mattson
Multiple, simultaneous relationships
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‘The Efe infant experiences a pattern of
simultaneous and multiple relationships.
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Not a pattern initially focused on one person that
gradually progresses to other relationships.
This simultaneous pattern is influenced by
physical and social ecological factors and
cultural practices.
This pattern of social experience leads to a
sense of self that incorporates other people
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Tronick, E. Z., Morelli, G. A., & Ivey, P. K. (1992).
simultaneous. Developmental Psychology, 28(4), 568-577.
The Efe forager infant and toddler's pattern of social relationships: Multiple and
Privileged Treatment of Toddlers: Cultural Aspects of
Individual Choice and Responsibility. Christine Mosier and Barbara
Rogoff
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The study:
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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
Nayfeld
Guatemalan Mayan mothers
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“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.”
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Mosier & Rogoff, 2003
Proportions of Events
Regarding Access to an Object
Event
Salt Lake City
.59 (.20)
San Pedro
.87 (.09)
Mothers endorsed toddler’s
privileged position
.43 (.24)
.63 (.22)
Mothers endorsed toddler’s
nonprivileged position
.25 (.13)
.04 (.05)
Siblings endorsed toddler’s
privileged position
.45 (.19)
.80 (.09)
Siblings endorsed toddler’s
nonprivileged position
.54 (.21)
.19 (.09)
Toddlers eventually gained
access to the object
Nayfeld
Maternal education (acculturation)
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San Pedro mothers’ schooling related
negatively to their privileged
endorsements (r .50, p < .05) and
uninvolvement (r .57, p < .05) and related
positively to their nonprivileged
endorsements (r .56, p < .05).
Affects siblings
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Salt Lake City: The older brother (3 years 0 months) was
playing with the pencil box and lid. Sam (15 months)
wanted the lid and grabbed for it. A tug-of-war ensued
until both mother and father separated the two boys. The
older brother ended up with the complete box and Sam
ended up playing with the embroidery hoop.
San Pedro: The older brother (3 years 9 months) put his
hand on the knob of the jar lid. Lidia (15 months)
reached out and gently pushed his hand off. The brother
removed his hand.
Reverse dominance hierarchies?
A hefty 15-month-old…
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walked around bonking his brothers and sisters, his
mother, and his aunt with the stick puppet that I had
brought along. The adults and older children just tried to
protect themselves and the little children near them, they
did not try to stop him. When I asked local people what
this toddler had been doing, they commented, “He was
amusing people; he was having a good time.”
Was he trying to hurt anybody?
“Oh no. He couldn't have been trying to hurt anybody;
he's just a baby. He wasn't being aggressive, he's too
young; he doesn't understand. Babies don't [misbehave]
on purpose.” (p. 165)
Attention to Interactions Directed to Others:
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Cultural variation in children’s
attentiveness
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Guatemalan Mayan & European American
Pueblo basic vs. Mexican high school
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Indigenous vs. westernized learning styles
Maternal education level and cultural
traditions
Toy construction paradigm
Correa-Chavez & Rogoff,
2009
Bustamante
Kids’ Attention to Interactions
Directed to Others
Bustamante
Interdependence vs. autonomy?
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American children are socialized to be relatively
autonomous, while Japanese children are
socialized to work interdependently in groups
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(Benedict, 1974; Conroy et ah, 1980).
Japanese mothers more frequently focus their
infants' attention within the mother-infant dyad,
while American infants spend more time
engaged with toys and vocalize or initiate
vocalizations more frequently
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(Bornstein et al., 1985-1986; Caudiil and Weinstein,
1969; Shand and Kosawa, 1985)
Cultural Differences in Child’s Play
(Cote & Bornstein, 2009)
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European American children – engage
more exploratory or object-related play
Argentina and Japan children – engage in
more symbolic, person-directed play
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Why?
Celimli
Findings
(Cote & Bornstein, 2009)
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Children’s play tends to be more
sophisticated when their mothers
encourage them than when children
initiate play or play alone
No cultural differences here
Japan
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“being voluntarily cooperative, sunao, is
encouraged:
A child who is sunao has not yielded his or her
personal autonomy for the sake of cooperation;
cooperation does not suggest giving up the self
as it may in the West; it implies that working with
others is the appropriate way of expressing and
enhancing the self. …
How one achieves a sunao child … seems to be
never go against the child.”
Turtle task.
24- to 31-month-olds
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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).
Figure
Video: Turtle task
Apparent developmental
discontinuity
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While the desires of Japanese infants are
indulged, school-age children are expected to
regulate their desires to conform to the demands
of working in a group (Hendry, 1986).
A sharp contrast is thought to exist between the
infant-centered relationship with the mother in
the home and the expectation that 3-year-olds,
upon entrance to nursery school, will learn to
conform to shudan seikatsu, 'life in a group'
(Peak, 1989)
Japanese discontinuity
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In traditional practices that may seem indulgent
to Western eyes, Japanese mothers do not go
against the young child's will but use other ways
to foster self-motivated cooperation
Traditional Japanese belief holds that it is not
appropriate to control young children from the
outside, because use of controlling behavior
(such as anger or impatience) leads children
after age 10 or 11 to resent and disobey
authority rather than to cooperate with others
Differential attributions
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Children are never willfully bad
What are the results of such a belief?
Behavioral Inhibition in
Chinese Children
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Behavioral Inhibition (BI)
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tendency to exhibit vigilance, anxiety, and
wariness in response to unfamiliar or challenging
situations
stable temperamental factor that affects up to
15% of typically developing children (Fox et al.,
2005)
Developmental outcomes of BI in North
America
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in Western cultures, has been associated with
socioemotional and school difficulties, social
anxiety, and depression
Behavioral Inhibition in
Chinese Children (cont)
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Mechanisms leading to negative outcomes?
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Caregiver attitudes (e.g., rejection, disapproval)
Responses of caregivers, teachers
Lack of peer acceptance
Negative self-perceptions
Cross-cultural similarities in behavioral
patterns
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But does BI have same significance in different
cultural contexts?
Age 2 inhibition predicts
age 7 outcome
Predictive Associations
Behavioral Inhibition in
Chinese Children
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BI has also been linked to higher morning cortisol,
higher startle response, and elevated morning
cortisol (Degnan, Alams, & Fox, 2010). Are these
physiological differences a function of BI or of
parental/environmental/cultural responses to BI?
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How generalizable do you think the findings are…
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At other times (vs. 1994-1999)?
To other regions?
Culture and Peer Interactions (Chen, 2012
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How is culture transmitted to a developing
child?
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Emphasis on social mediation
Culture
Peer
Interactions
Social
Development
Culture and Peer Interactions (Chen, 2012)
Chen, Wang, & DeSouza, 2006
But… cultures change
Yang, F., Chen, X., & Wang, L. (2015). Shyness-Sensitivity and Social,
School, and Psychological Adjustment in Urban Chinese Children: A FourWave Longitudinal Study. Child Development, n/a-n/a. doi:
10.1111/cdev.12414
Culture and Peer Interactions (Chen,
2012)
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What are some unique aspects of culture
transmitted via peer interactions vs. other
types of socialization experiences?
Parenting Style and Child
Adjustment
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Previous findings suggest ethnic differences
within North American sample in relations
among harsh parenting and child adjustment?
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Proposed mechanism accounting for differences?
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Rohner’s (1986) parental acceptance-rejection theory
Grusec and Goodnow’s Framework
What is missing- how culture might affect the way children make these
judgments
Fig 1; Lansford et al., 2005
Autonomy vs. Interdependence?
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Value system, rules, and the structure of
the family unit have been formed through
the societal demands which show
variances across time and cultures.
A model of family change (Kağıtçıbaşı,
1996a, 1996b) - analyzes the link between
the self, family, and society in order to
explain cultural differences
Celimli
Family Interaction Patterns
(Kagitcibasi, 1996, 2005)
 total interdependence:
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dependence:
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The child is the economic value
Independence of the child is not valued or evaluated
Obedience is fundamental to childrearing
The child: a source of economic costs
Independence of the child: highly valued
Autonomy is the basic childrearing orientation
psychological interdependence:
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The child: no longer the economic value
Psychological interdependence of the child: valued
Closeness and relatedness (not separateness) is the ultimate
goal in childrearing practices
Celimli
Parenting Style and Child
Adjustment (cont)
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Mothers’ self-reports of own use of physical
discipline- similar patterns found for perceptions of
normativeness by mothers and children- differed
between countries
Figure 2, Lansford et al.
Does normativeness moderate association
between physical discipline and adjustment?
By country
“In the anthropology
literature, there are many
examples of parental
behaviors that appear to
have no detrimental effects
on children’s adjustment,
despite the perception in
other cultural contexts that
these behaviors would be
harmful to children.” (p.
1242)
How to study
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Should we take a (likely Western)
construct and apply it across cultures
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E.g.:Italian mothers were more sensitive and
optimally structuring, and Italian children were more
responsive and involving, than Argentine and U.S.
dyads.’ (Bornstein et al. 2008)
Or should we adopt constructs from the
cultures we are studying?
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E.g. Rogoff
What about subcultures here in Miami?