Psychology 133G – Summer Session C, 2003
CULTURE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00-3:05
Franz 3534
Sections:
Franz 3435 (except 1D in Franz 3621C)
1A Th 10-10:50, 1B Th 11-11:50,
1C Th 12-12:50, 1D Th 12-12:50
Maya Gratier, Ph.D.
Lecturer and Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dept. of Psychology, The Center for Culture, Brain and
Development, UCLA
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 4-5 and by appointment
Office: 2311 Franz Hall
Phone: (323) 899-1524
Email: gratier@psych.ucla.edu
Teaching Assistants
Jennifer Pfeifer
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 11-12
Office: 2337 Franz Hall
Email: jpfeifer@ucla.edu
Emily Goldknopf
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 4-5
Office: TBA
Email: emmy@humnet.ucla.edu
Readings for the class
- Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development. Edited by P. M. Greenfield and R. R.
Cocking. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. ON SALE AT THE BOOKSTORE. ON RESERVE AT
POWELL LIBRARY.
- The course reader is available for purchase at:
Copymat Westwood
925 Westwood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90024
(310) 824 5276
- Course web page: http://www.lsic.ucla.edu/classes/psych/current/031/133G_031.htm
1
Aim of the course
The primary aim of this course is to revisit some of the major theoretical landmarks in
developmental psychology and to reconsider them in light of cultural psychological and
anthropological research. This will encourage us to think about the cultural universals and
specifics of human development. The topics covered in this course are centered on the basic
assumption that people and their developmental contexts shape each other in a dynamic way.
Cultural ways of behaving, feeling, thinking, and communicating shape the human mind from
the very beginning of life and continue to do so throughout life. At the same time, people are
continually renegotiating and changing the cultures they live in. A special emphasis will be put
on issues relating to cultural change and multiculturalism through immigration, modernization,
and globalization.
Organization of the course
The course is organized around core topics in developmental psychology presented
chronologically from birth to adolescence such as infant communication, attachment, moral
development and cognitive development . It also addresses contemporary issues such as
immigration and cultural change, sub-cultures of youth, and multiculturalism which require a
cultural psychological approach from the outset. For each core developmental topic, a review of
classical theories will be presented and critiqued in light of cross-cultural research from
psychological and anthropological studies. Lectures will both present overarching theoretical
frameworks to better conceptualize the relationship between biology and culture in
developmental psychology and will offer in-depth insights into developmental issues and goals
in diverse cultural settings. The remarkable cultural diversity of the contexts of development
throughout the world – and how they change as new values and techniques are transmitted – will
fuel our theoretical reflections. Students are encouraged to relate the theoretical material to their
own cultural experiences in the U.S. or abroad and to contribute insights from their own
personal histories. These issues will be explored through readings, lectures, films, group
discussions, and empirical study.
Requirements
Two papers, one field work presentation and five assignments (paragraph-length critical
comments) are required and make up the final grade. THERE WILL BE NO FINAL EXAM.
The first paper will be due at the end of Week 3 and the second at the end of Week 6.
- Critical comments (50 points, 10 points each week)
For every section meeting after Week 1 you are to write a 2/3 to one page-length (single-spaced)
critical comment on the assigned papers for that week. You can either write an in-depth comment
on one of the assigned papers or you can compare and contrast two or more of the assigned
papers which have a common theme. You are expected to make clear reference to the paper or
papers that you choose to discuss and to provide a very brief overview of it (them). Your critical
comment(s) should be centered around one or two arguments or inferences taken from the
paper(s) and should provide a clear and succinct appraisal of their validity, scope, and
2
shortcomings. Start your paragraph by stating the overall argument(s) you wish to address.
Describe what you agreed and disagreed with, why you thought the argument(s) may be
important or invalid, and conclude with questions or issues the argument(s) might bring up. Your
critical comments are to handed in to the TA of your section AT THE BEGINNING of the
section meeting.
- Papers (100 points, 50 points each paper)
Two short discussion papers (2-4 double-spaced, typed pages) will be based on assigned reading,
lectures, and films. The first paper will be due at the section meeting of Week 3 and two
potential essay questions for the first paper will be handed out to you at your section meeting in
Week 1. The second paper will be due at the section meeting of Week 6 and two potential essay
questions for the second paper will be handed out to you at your section meeting in Week 3.
- Field research project (50 points)
One project will be presented by students in section each week. The purpose of the collaborative
field project is to link the theoretical issues analyzed in class with their empirical and personal
aspects. The project will give you an opportunity to explore and familiarize yourself with some
of the basic research methods in cultural psychology and anthropology, such as direct
observation, video analysis, and interviewing.
.
Each student will participate in a field research project group and will present their findings with
their co-investigators at one of the weekly section meetings.
The directions for each field project (there will be 5 projects for this course) are given in the
week-by-week outline that follows. Each field project will be related to the readings, lectures,
and other materials studied in class the previous week.
The presentation of the field projects should last no more than 20 minutes. You may use
overheads, PowerPoint slides, audio and video play back facilities (please let your TA know one
week ahead what you will need for your presentation). The presentation should include a
statement of your goals, a description of the methods you used to achieve those goals, a
description of your findings and a brief reflection on the relevance of your findings and how they
relate to the larger issues brought up in class.
The same grade will be assigned to all group members and will be based on both the quality of
the field project and the quality of the presentation. The presentation should reflect a true
collaborative effort on the part of the group members. No written work will be handed in.
A synopsis of each field research project is included in the week by week syllabus. For a more
detailed description of the projects look under ‘course documents’ on the course web page.
Read the ‘Methodological Guidelines for Field Research’ in the ‘course documents’ section of
the course web page.
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Final Grades
1. Critical Comments = 50 (5 x 10)
2. Papers = 100 (50 x 2)
3. Field Research Project = 50
TOTAL = 200 points
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
97-100%
93-96%
90-92%
87-89%
83-86%
80-82%
77-79%
73-76%
70-72%
67-69%
63-66%
60-62%
Below 60%
193-200
185-192
179-184
173-178
165-172
159-164
153-158
145-152
139-144
133-138
125-132
120-124
Below 120
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LECTURE TOPICS, READING AND FIELD PROJECTS
WEEK 1
Tuesday 8/5
Introduction: Culture and Human Development
Thursday 8/7
Birth and the Newborn: Ready for Culture
Reading:
Donald, M. (2000). The central role of culture in cognitive evolution: A reflection on the myth of
the “isolated mind”. In L. P. Nucci, G. B. Saxe & E. Turriel (Eds), Culture, Thought, and
Development (pp.19-38). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Greenfield, P. M. & Suzuki, L. K. (1997). Culture and human development: Implications for
parenting, education, pediatrics and mental health. In W. Damon (Series Ed.), I. E.
Siegel, & K. A. Renninger (Vol. Eds). Handbook of child psychology: Vol.4. Child
Psychology in practice (5th ed., pp. 1063-1075). New York: Wiley.
Films:
J.R. Bjorkvold. When the Moment Sings.
Sarah Gavron. This Little Life. BBC production 2003. Fiction.
Childhood Series: Great Expectations
Barbara Johnson. We know how to do these things: Birth in a Newar village.
WEEK 2
Tuesday 8/12
Infancy: Social Relations and Communication
Thursday 8/14
Attachment, Self, and Context
Reading:
Trevarthen, C. (1988). Universal cooperative motives: How infants begin to know language and
skills of culture. In G. Jahoda & I. M. Lewis (Eds.), Acquiring culture: Ethnographic
perspectives on cognitive development (pp. 37-90). London: Croom Helm.
Van Ijzendoorn, M (1999). Cross-cultural patterns of attachment: Universal and
contextual dimensions. In J. Cassidy & P. R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of attachment:
Theory, research, and clinical applications (pp. 713-734). New York: The Guilford
Press.
5
Morelli, G.A., Rogoff, B., Oppenheim, D. & Goldsmith, D. (1992). Cultural variation in
infants’ sleeping arrangements: Questions of independence. Developmental
Psychology, 28, 604-613.
Films:
Jim Wilce. Rhythm of Human Interaction.
The Open University. Attachment Theory: The baby/caregiver bond.
Field Research Project: PREGNANCY AND CHILD BIRTH
Interview at least two mothers from different cultural backgrounds (they don’t have to be young)
about their experiences of being pregnant and giving birth. Ask them to describe any traditions
surrounding pregnancy and child birth that they might have seen or been told about in their
communities, past or present (e.g. in many parts of India pregnant women receive daily massages
from an experienced masseuse who comes to their home and who continues to massage mother
and baby after birth). Ask them how they felt about the care and help they received in preparing
the birth of their child and how it compared with the practices surrounding pregnancy and childbirth in their culture of origin or in the culture of their parents or grand-parents.
WEEK 3
Tuesday 8/19
Language Development and Language Socialization
Thursday 8/21
Cognitive Development and Intelligence
Reading:
Rabain-Jamin, J. (1994). Language and socialization of the child in African families living in
France. In P. M. Greenfield & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of minority
child development (pp. 147-166). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Blake, I.K. (1994). Language development and socialization in young African-American
children. In P. M. Greenfield & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Cross-cultural roots of
minority child development (pp. 167-196). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Dasen, P. (1984). The cross-cultural study of intelligence: Piaget and the Baolé. In P. S. Fry
(Ed.), Changing conceptions of intelligence and intellectual functioning: Current theory
and research (pp. 107-134). North Holland: International Union of Psychological
Science.
Schiefflin, B. B. & Ochs, E. (1986). Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology,
15, 163-191. [Optional]
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Films:
Fali Bilimoria et al. Four Families. 1959
Childhood Series: Life’s Lessons
Field Research Project: INFANT CARE PRACTICES
Use either direct observation and notes or film or photo reportage to record two types of
parenting practices (e.g. bathing, feeding, putting to sleep) with infants between birth and 24
months of age in two families from different cultural backgrounds. Interview one or both parents
about their infant care practices: how they learned about them, how similar they are to those used
by other families around them (their friends, their families), why they adopt particular techniques
for infant care, how similar their practices are to traditional practices in the U.S. or in their
country of origin (if they are immigrants), why they think their care practices are good for their
infant, etc. You can also interview a grand-parent if they are around to get an intergenerational
perspective on infant care practices. Compare and confront your own observational data with the
interview data from the parents. Do the two sets of data corroborate or contradict each other?
Present some of your observational data (notes or footage) and the most salient aspects of the
interviews that go with them. Try to find links between your findings, the readings and some of
the issues concerning infant care practices discussed in class.
WEEK 4
Tuesday 8/26
Learning and Education
Thursday 8/28
Moral Development
Reading:
Raeff, C., Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (2000). Conceptualizing interpersonal relationships
in the cultural contexts of individualism and collectivism. New Directions for Child and
Adolescent Development, 87, 59-74.
Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Greenfield, P. M. (2000). Bridging cultures in our
schools: New approaches that work. Knowledge Brief. San Francisco: WestEd.
Kohlberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive-developmental
approach. In T. Lickona (Ed.), Moral development and behavior (pp. 31-53). New
York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Eckensberger, L. H. and Zimba, R. F. (1990). The development of moral judgment. In J. W.
Berry et al. (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, Vol.2: Basic processes and
human development. (2nd ed. pp. 300-338). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
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Film:
Angus Gibson. 7up in South Africa
Field Research Project: LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
Interview two or three people who are either second generation immigrants, who grew up
speaking many languages or whose parents speak or spoke a language that they don’t speak,
about their relationship to the various languages they speak or grew up hearing. Use a semistructured interview format and if possible tape the interview. If you cannot tape the interview,
create a questionnaire that you can fill in during or right after the interview, and then make
detailed notes of what you remember of the interview right after the interview. Ask interviewees
about their emotional attachment to language, why and how they maintained or lost their parents’
language (heritage language), whether they taught or plan to teach that language to their children,
and about their experiences of growing up bilingual or multilingual, etc… Organize your
interview data into broad categories and compare and contrast your three interviewees, link your
findings to this week’s reading and other readings in the textbook or elsewhere. Try to interview
people with different cultural backgrounds and linguistic experiences.
WEEK 5
Tuesday 9/2
Adolescence: Identity and Sexuality
Thursday 9/4
Youth Identities: Musical Cultures (Rap, Hip Hop, Bhangra
and the Asian Underground)
For a sample of Brit-Asian music check out Adil Ray’s radio show
streaming live on the BBC Asian Network at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/presenters/adil_ray/
Reading:
Konner, M. (1990). Childhood (pp. 341-398). Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
Miller, B. (1995). Precepts and practices: Researching identity formation among Hindu
adolescents in the US. In J. Goodnow, P. J. Miller, & F. Kessel (Eds.), Cultural
practices as contexts for development. San Fransisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ahmed, R. (2003, January 15). Going Bhangra way. Hindustan Times.
Sunaina, M. (1998). Desis Reprazent: Bhangra remix and hip hop in New York City.
Postcolonial Studies, 1 ( 3), 357-370.
Films:
Margaret Mead. Trance and Dance in Bali
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Bhaji on the beach. 1994.
Rhyme and Reason. Miramax, 1997.
Field Research Project: BRIDGING CULTURES
Film, do direct observation or a photo reportage of children for about 60 minutes in a classroom
or at a summer camp activity and study the ways in which the culture of the classroom or camp
might be different from the home cultures of some of the children. You can also interview some
of the children about their experiences at home and at school or camp (note that interviewing
children can be very challenging so don’t be too demanding). How might these home-school
differences explain some of their behaviors, attitudes, interaction styles? Try to find examples of
cross-cultural conflict and harmony in your observations or footage. For example, some teachers
or counselors might expect children to work on their own whereas at home they may be used to
more collaborative learning.
WEEK 6
Tuesday 9/9
Culture and Developmental Psychopathology
Thursday 9/11
Geographies of belonging: Context, territoriality and dislocation
Reading:
Sroufe, L. A. & Rutter, M. (2000). The domain of developmental psychopathology. In A. Slater
& D. Muir (Eds.), Developmental Psychology (pp.535-554). Basil Blackwell.
Daley, T. C. (2002). The need for cross-cultural research on the pervasive developmental
disorders. Transcultural Psychiatry, 39 (4), 531-550.
Delgado-Gaitan, C. (1994). Socializing young children in Mexican-American families: An
intergenerational perspective. In P. M. Greenfield & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Cross-cultural
roots of minority child development (pp. 55-87). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Anderson-Fye, E. (2003). Never leave yourself: Ethnopsychology as mediator of psychological
globalization among Belizean schoolgirls. Ethos, 31(1), 77-112. [optional]
Gilroy, P. (1993). Between Afro-centrism and Euro-centrism: Youth culture and the
problem of hybridity. YOUNG, 1(2).
http://www.alli.fi/nyri/young/1993-2/y932gilr.htm [optional]
Films:
Cure Autism Now: Inside Story – Tito’s story
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Deann Borshay Liem. First Person Plural
Field Research Project: MUSIC AND IDENTITY
Interview 2 or 3 adolescents (aged 16-20) from different cultural backgrounds about the music
they like and listen to most. How did they discover it? Why do they like it? Do their friends
listen to the same music? Etc… Ask the adolescents about their cultural/ethnic identity. Then ask
them to lend you a copy of their favorite song and transcribe its lyrics. Try to make a connection
between the style of music they listen to and their ethnic identity and reflect on the lyrics and
musical structure of the song and why you think they chose it.
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GRADING SCALE FOR ESSAY
CRITERIA FOR GRADING
Originality of thesis: You develop an authentic, fresh insight that
challenges the reader’s thinking. The paper shows a complex,
curious mind at work. The paper is original and not a simple rehashing or repetition of assigned readings.
Clarity of thesis and purpose: The thesis and purpose are clear to
the reader.
Organization: The essay is organized in a way that fully and
imaginatively supports the thesis and purpose. The sequence of
ideas is effective, given your thesis and purpose. The reader
always feels that the writer is in control of the organization, even
when the organizational plan is complex, surprising, or unusual.
The sub points serve to open up and explore your insight in the
most productive way.
Support: You offer the best possible evidence and reasoning to
convince the reader. No important pieces of available evidence
and no important points or reasons are omitted. It is clear that you
are very well informed, have searched hard and efficiently for
appropriate evidence, and have thought about how evidence may
be used for the argument. Evidence presented is always relevant
to the point being made. Through telling detail, you help the
reader to experience what you are saying.
Use of sources: You have used sources from the readings and
lectures to support, extend, and inform the ideas but not to
substitute for your own development of an idea. You have
efficiently combined material from a variety of sources,
including, as relevant and needed, personal observation, scientific
data, authoritative testimony, and others. (This is not to say that
you must or should use outside sources. Need and relevance
should be the determining factors.) You use quotations to capture
a source’s key points or turns of phrases but do not overuse
quoted material to substitute for the writer’s own development of
an idea. Quotations, paraphrasing, and citations are handled
according to accepted scholarly form.
Ethos: You create a “self” or “ethos” that sounds genuine, that is
relevant to your purpose, and that is consistent throughout the
essay.
Total
possible #
of points
Your
points
10
5
10
7.5
7.5
4
11
Style: Language is used with control, elegance, and imagination to
serve your purpose. The essay, when read aloud, pleases the eye
2
and ear.
Edited Written Standard English (ESWE): Except for deliberate
departures (the quoted speech of a person, a humorous purpose,
and so on), you use ESWE forms of grammar, punctuation,
spelling, and syntax.
Presentation: The essay looks neat, crisp, and professional.
2
2
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity
Plagiarism involves presenting as your own work the words or ideas of other people -- whether
the source was printed, electronic, or in some other form. Plagiarism and other kinds of academic
dishonesty are considered serious offenses at UCLA; instructors are required to refer suspected
offenses to the Dean. To avoid plagiarizing when writing, be sure to cite your sources properly
and to use paraphrasing and quotations when appropriate. If you have any questions about how
to do this, or if you're having other difficulties getting through an assignment, please don't
hesitate to ask the TAs or instructor for help.
GRADING SCALE FOR FIELD RESEARCH PROJECTS
CRITERIA FOR GRADING
Total
possible #
of points
Originality of idea: The team came up with novel ideas and used
methodological tools appropriately.
10
Clarity of thesis and purpose: The thesis and purpose were clear
to the class.
10
Organization: The project was presented in a complete and
compelling manner.
10
Support: The team was able to explain clearly about the data
collected, and if relevant why certain data was not utilized. A
variety of sources, when appropriate, was utilized.
Class discussion: led a discussion, where appropriate, in which
key issues were addressed and discussed.
Your
points
10
10
12