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© 2013 Cengage Learning
Outline

Culture and Temperament

What is Temperament?
 The Goodness of Fit between Temperament and
Culture
 Cross-Cultural Studies on Temperament
 Temperament and Learning Culture
 Dimensions of Temperament: A Focus on Behavioral
Inhibition
 Sources behind Temperament Differences
Outline (cont’d.)

Culture and Attachment

Bowlby's Theory of Attachment
 Bowlby and Ainsworth's Classification System of
Attachment
 Cross-Cultural Studies on Attachment
 Is Secure Attachment a Universal Ideal?

Temperament and Attachment: A Summary
Outline (cont’d.)

Cognitive Development

Piaget's Theory
 Piaget's Theory in Cross-Cultural Perspective
 Piaget's Theory: Summary and Discussion
 Other Theories of Cognitive Development
Outline (cont’d.)

Moral Reasoning

What is Moral?
 Kohlberg's Theory of Morality
 Cross-Cultural Studies of Moral Reasoning
 Three Ethics Approach to Moral Reasoning

Other Developmental Processes
 Conclusion
CULTURE AND TEMPERAMENT
Culture and Temperament

Process of socialization starts from very first day
of life
 Characteristics we are born with determine how
our caregivers react and interact with us,
initiating lifelong process of socialization
 Children of different cultures are born with
different biological predispositions to learn
certain cultural practices
What is Temperament?

Temperament: biologically based style of
interacting with world that exists from birth
 Easy temperament: adaptable, mild
 Difficult temperament: intense, irregular
 Slow-to-warm-up: needs time to make
transitions
The Goodness of Fit between
Temperament and Culture

How well does a child’s temperament match the
expectations and values of the parent?

Mismatch: more negative child outcomes are
expected
 Good match: better child outcomes are expected

Dispositions and behaviors must be considered
in relation to specific culture
 Same dispositions and behaviors may have
different meanings in different cultures
Cross-Cultural Studies on
Temperament

If different temperaments at birth, children of
different cultures will respond to environment
differently
 Children of different cultures will also evoke
different responses from caregivers and
environment
 Consequence: fundamental differences in
learning, social experiences, worldview, and
culture of children as they grow
Temperament and Learning Culture

Differences in infant temperament help parents
reinforce cultural practices
 Temperament serves as baseline biological
predisposition
 Cultural differences evident early in life indicate
personalities and behaviors valued in adults
 Child's temperament and environmental
response results in differences in learning, social
experiences, behaviors, personalities, and
worldviews
Dimensions of Temperament: A
Focus on Behavioral Inhibition
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Activity level
Smiling and laughter
Fear
Distress to limitations
Soothability
Duration of orienting
Sources Behind
Temperament Differences

Developmental contextualism perspective:
genetics, reproductive histories, and
environmental and cultural pressures over
generations
 Cultural experiences of mother during
pregnancy
 Complex interplay between multiple factors such
as temperamental styles valued in each culture,
specific environmental demands, and
physiological aspects of mother
CULTURE AND ATTACHMENT
Culture and Attachment

Attachment: special bond that develops between
infant and caregiver
 Quality of attachment has lifelong effects on
relationships with loved ones
 Attachment provides child with emotional
security
 Once attached, babies are distressed by
separation from caregiver
Bowlby's Theory of Attachment

Infants must have a preprogrammed, biological
basis for becoming attached to their caregivers
 Smiling and cooing elicits physical attachment
behaviors on part of caregiver
 Attachment relationship between caregiver and
child is survival strategy
Bowlby and Ainsworth's
Classification System of Attachment

Tripartite classification system of attachment
relationships

Secure: infant distressed when mother leaves but
easily comforted when she returns
 Ambivalent: infant is distressed when mother leaves
but sends mixed signals upon return
 Avoidant: not distressed when mother leaves and
upon return, avoids reuniting with mother
Cross-Cultural Studies on
Attachment

Strange Situation study: infants separated from
mothers for a brief period of time
 Meaning of separation may differ across cultures
 Researchers have questioned appropriateness
of different categories of attachment
 Maternal sensitivity has not been consistently
linked to secure attachment
Is Secure Attachment a
Universal Ideal?

Cultures may differ in notion of "ideal"
attachment
 Attachment relationships in childhood may have
long-term consequences into adolescence and
adulthood
 Early attachment relationships affect quality of
peer relationships, ability to develop intimate
adult relationships, and how one parents
 Attachment between infants and caregivers is
universal phenomenon
TEMPERAMENT AND
ATTACHMENT: A SUMMARY
Temperament and Attachment:
A Summary

Optimal style of attachment in one culture may
not necessarily be optimal across all cultures
 Examining attachment "network" instead of
focusing solely on dyads is of crucial importance
 Close interaction between infant’s temperament,
attachment with caregiver, and broader
environment that contributes to development
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
Piaget's Theory

Sensorimotor stage: (birth to 2 years)
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Preoperational stage: (2 to 6 or 7 years)

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Conservation, centration, irreversibility, egocentrism,
and animism
Concrete operations stage: (6 or 7 years to 11)


Children understand by perceiving and doing
Thinking skills to work with actual objects and events
Formal operations stage: (11 years through
adulthood)

Think logically about abstract concepts
Piaget's Theory in Cross-Cultural
Perspective

Piaget's stages occur in same fixed order in
other cultures
 Variations in ages at which children in different
societies reach third and fourth Piagetian stages
 Considerable variation in order in which children
acquire specific skills within Piaget's stages
 Different societies value and reward different
skills and behaviors
Piaget's Theory: Summary and
Discussion
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In some cultures, very few people complete
fourth-stage Piagetian tasks
Are Piagetian tasks culturally appropriate?
Do Piagetian tasks depend on previous
knowledge and cultural values?
Within-culture differences hinder inferences
about differences in cognitive development
between cultures
Universality of fourth stage of Piaget's theory of
cognitive development is questionable
Other Theories of Cognitive
Development
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Great divide theory: separates thoughts of
Westerners from people in primitive societies
Stage theories judge people from other cultures
based on how closely they resemble westerners
People from many cultures prefer own groups
and rate them more positively than outsiders
Piaget theory emphasized several concepts
important for cognitive development today
“Everyday cognition”: cognition in the context of
daily activities within cultural community
MORAL REASONING
Moral Reasoning

Moral principles and ethics provide guidelines
for people's behaviors with regard to what is
appropriate and what is not
 Morality is heavily influenced by underlying,
subjective, and implicit culture
 Morality serves as basis of laws, and thus
culture also affects laws of society
What is Moral?
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Types of rules children as young as three can
differentiate:

Moral: applies to everyone; cannot be changed;
based on values
 Conventional: applies to certain groups; changeable;
based on agreed-upon norms
 Personal: applies to individuals; changeable; based
on preferences of specific person
Kohlberg's Theory of Morality

Preconventional morality: compliance with rules
to avoid punishment and gain rewards
 Conventional morality: conformity to rules
defined by others' approval or society's rules
 Postconventional morality: moral reasoning on
basis of individual principles and conscience
Cross-Cultural Studies of Moral
Reasoning

Some aspects of Kohlberg's theory of morality
are universal
 Many studies on moral reasoning raise
questions about universal generalizability of
Kohlberg's highest stage (postconventional)
 Cross-cultural studies have shown that people
from different cultures do reason differently
about moral dilemmas
Three Ethics Approach to Moral
Reasoning

Ethic of autonomy: emphasizes individual rights
and justice
 Ethic of community: emphasizes interpersonal
relationships and community
 Ethic of divinity: centrality of religious beliefs and
spirituality in moral reasoning
OTHER DEVELOPMENTAL
PROCESSES
Other Developmental Processes

Cross-cultural research offers important insights
into how differences observed in adults have
come to be
 Renewed interest in cross-cultural
developmental research due to increased
interest in culture in all areas of psychology
 Cross-cultural studies highlight similarities and
differences in development across cultures
CONCLUSION
Conclusion
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Two key issues concerning human
development:

Whether developmental pathways are universal or
culture specific
 How development occurs

All people are born into specific cultures with
unique set of characteristics and predispositions
 Each culture exerts influence, and in
combination with each unique cultural member,
produces specific tendencies, trends, and
differences in members