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REVISED JUNE, 2003
Book Proposal: A New Paradigm for Developmental Psychology
Patricia Greenfield, UCLA Psychology
Heidi Keller, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Koc University, Turkey
This book will put forth a new paradigm for developmental psychology. It
will be based on the notion that there are two distinct cultural pathways
through development: a collectivistic pathway towards interdependence and
an individualistic pathway towards independence. Each pathway emphasizes
different components of the universal evolved biological heritage of ontogeny.
These pathways constitute deep structures which can be realized in different ways
in different countries and cultures. What is generally presented in current
developmental psychology as universals of development will constitute the heart of
our description of the individualistic pathway toward independence.
However, the pathways are not binary opposites. Instead, each represents a
particular dialectical relationship between independence and
interdependence. Every cullture has its minor as well as its major mode.
Indeed, there may be tendencies for the minor mode to appear most strongly in
certain parts of the culture, such as religion. For example, a collectivistic society
such as India may use religion as a safety valve for unsatisfied individual needs
(Sinha and Tripathi, 1994), whereas an individualistic society such as the United
States may use religion to compensate for the unfulfilled need for community (for
example, the image of church as family or community). These minor modes
probably play only a secondary role in the socializing process, as they do in the
culture as a whole.
As another example of the dialectical relationship between interdependence and
independence, a culture may react against extremes in one direction or another and
consciously try to bring the culture back in the other direction. This dynamic is
evident in Saraswathi's (1998) examples of collectivistic childrearing messages in
the U.S. media , for example, the message to teach children respect for parents and
teachers. It is the cultural absence of such respect in the United States, not its
presence, that creates the need for this message. The side of the dialectic that is
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most developed by a culture still leaves a potential for the other side to be further
developed in both the culture and the individual. This untapped potential is the
ground for social and individual change. Indeed, the "pure" pathways are
constantly transformed by social and ecological change, as well as through
cross-cultural contact of many sorts in our global world, as our book will
show. Kagitcibasi's (1996) "autonomous relational self" is, for example, a
synthesis that reflects the influence of global individualizing forces, such as
urbanization and formal education on collectivistic socialization.
The book will have a dual purpose and audience. One purpose will be to
advance the field of integrated developmental science by presenting a new
paradigm for the scientific study of human development. The other will be to
insert this paradigm in undergraduate and graduate training by preparing a
book that can be used as a text for teaching developmental psychology or
more specialized courses on culture and development.
The book will follow an outline that is organized around major topics in
developmental research. This outline is also compatible with the way
developmental psychology is currently taught. We will have the examples
and photographs that make a book lively and readable. Photographs and
examples, as qualitative data types, also reflect our commitment to integrating
qualitative and quantitative methods in the development of this new
paradigm.
Because our paradigm encompasses development on a worldwide basis, our
intended audience , like our core group, is international, including all regions
of the world. Our paradigm also enables the integration of cultural diversity
within societies with a cross-cultural approach. In addition to their
international composition, authors will also reflect the cultural diversity of the
United States.
Preparation of the book is being partially supported by the National Science Foundation. The
late Rod Cocking was our supportive and visionary program officer. We request, as part of our
book contract, that Erlbaum supply a professional writer, who could integrate material from a
number of authors, making it highly readable and stylistically consistent.
A chapter-by-chapter outline follows. The order of chapters is a developmental one. We have
ordered the topics as well as possible by age of first appearance of a particular developmental
issue.
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Chapter 1. Introduction
Patricia Greenfield, Heidi Keller, Cigdem Kagitcibasi
What is development?
- the intersection between biology and culture
- continuity and change
- internal sources
- external sources
- life stages and developmental tasks throughout the life span
What is developmental psychology?
- the Western history of the field
- folk theories, indigenous theories
- implications for theory, research, and methods- qualitative and quantitative methodology
- interdisciplinary integration
Introduction of the two pathways and their ecological, family contexts
Plan of the next 12 chapters;
Each chapter treats a developmental domain. The domains are introduced in the order in which
they first become salient in human development.
Chapter 2. Bonding, attachment and the development of primary relationships
Heidi Keller
Note: The outline of Chapter 2 that follows will, in order to maintain consistency, also serve as
the outline for Chapters 3-13.
a. Begin with a quotation or short transcript (e.g., an African proverb, a saying of
Confucious, a transcript from a video)
b. Description of the universal task implicit in the domain, including biological and
evolutionary foundations.
c. The individualistic pathway (normally, this would be the "standard story" of
developmental psychology. This would have 5 levels (incorporating D'Andrade)
-cultural (heritage of ideas)
- institutional (roles, norms, normative goals)
- psychological (ideas feelings motives of older generation - parental
ethnotheories)
- socialization practices
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- behavioral development
Discussion should include cross-cultural variability within a pathway (e.g., U.S.
vs. Germany). Each chapter should include lifespan transformations in the issue to
the extent possible (e.g. infant attachment, adult attachment, relations to parents in
infancy connected to relations to parents as adults)
d. The interdependent pathway.
- cultural (heritage of ideas)
- institutional (roles, norms, normative goals)
- psychological (ideas feelings motives of older generation - parental
ethnotheories)
socialization practices
behavioral development
Discussion should include variability within a pathway (e.g., Mexico or Africa vs.
Asia). Each chapter should refer to lifespan transformations in the issue (e.g.
infant attachment, adult attachment, connection between relations with parents in
infancy and adulthood). In some cases, these lifespan transformations will be the
topic of other chapters; for example, parenting, chapter 11, is in part a lifespan
transformation of bonding, attachment, etc., Chapter 2.
e. Effects of social change and interactions between the pathways on socialization and
development.
f. Policy and practice
g. Summary with bullet points
h. Photographs or other illustrations that would illustrate research and theory
i. Some figures and tables
j. About 9000 words per chapter
Chapters 3-13 will have the same internal outline. as Chapter 2.
Chapter 3. Emotion, motivation, morality
Maya Gratier, & Lourdes DeLeon
Chapter 4. Cognition and learning
Patricia Greenfield
Chapter 5. Language and communication
Jacqueline Rabain-Jamain & Mary Eunice Romero
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Chapter 6. Conceptions of self and identity
Qi Wang & Nandita Chowdhry
Chapter 7. Peer and sibling relationships
Ashley Maynard & Bame Nsamenang
Chapter 9 Autonomy and relatedness
Cigdem Kagitcibasi, & Vivian Tseng
Chapter 10. Gender and sexuality
Monique Ward, Janet Kim, & Debbie Best (chapter author only; unable to attend the
workshop)
Chapter 11. Parenting as a developmental outcome.
Cigdem Kagitcibasi, Heidi Keller, & Robin Harwood (chapter author only; unable to
attend the workshop)
The rationale for this rather unusual developmental topic is the following: parenting as a
developmental influence in guiding and canalizing the pathways is part of all the chapters.
However, once you have been raised along a certain cultural pathway, you will also turn out to
be a certain type of "cultural" parent. In other words, parenting is an effect as well as a cause of
development. This chapter would look at the same facts as the others from a different (effect)
perspective, drawing all the material on parenting together in a single chapter.
Chapter 12. Development at risk
Eileen Anderson-Fye &Tamara Daley
Chapter 13. Conclusions (brief):
Heidi Keller, Patricia Greenfield, & Cigdem Kagitcibasi
a. Basic principles and generalizations about development that have emerged
b. Using these principles and generalizations in everyday life, professional practice, and
policy
References
Kagitcibasi, C. (1996). The autonomous-relational self: A new synthesis. European
Psychologist, 1, 180-186.
Saraswathi, T.S. (1998). Many deities, one God: Towards convergence in cultrural and
cross-cultural psychology. Culture and Psychology, 4, 147-160.
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Sinha, D. & Tripathi, R. C. (1994). Individualism in a collectivist culture. In U. Kim, H.
C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S.-C. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and
collectivism: Theory, metod, and and applications. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.