M3.
3 Culture
and
Temperament
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What Is Temperament?
Biologically based style of
interacting and responding
to the environment that
exists from birth
Easy: Adaptable, mild
Difficult: Intense, irregular
Slow-to-warm-up: Infant
needs time to make
transitions
Goodness of Fit between Temperament and
Culture
Goodness of fit: Degree to which a child’s temperament matches
the expectations and values of the parent, environment, and culture
Mismatch - Negative child outcomes
Good match - Better child outcomes
But: what might be difficult in one setting can be adaptive in
another!
- Difficult temperament among Masai (p. 87)
- Behavioral inhibition in US/China (p. 90)
Dimensions of
Temperament
Activity level
Smiling and laughter
Fear
Distress to limitations
Soothability
Duration of orienting
Most investigated:
Why is Temperament
different?
Reasons for differences in temperament from a
developmental contextualism perspective
Genetics
Reproductive histories
Environmental and cultural pressures over
generations
Cultural experiences of mother during pregnancy
Complex interplay between multiple factors
M3.4
Culture and
Attachment
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What is Attachment?
Special bond that develops between the infant and the
primary caregiver
Provides the infant with emotional security
Quality of attachment has lifelong effects on the
relationships with loved ones
Bowlby’s evolutionary theory
Infants have a preprogrammed, biological basis for
becoming attached to their caregivers
Attachment relationship between caregiver and
child is a survival strategy
Bowlby and Ainsworth’s
Tripartite Classification
Three categories:
Secure
Ambivalent
Avoidant
Instrument: Strange Situation Test
Challenges:
Meaning of separation/parental sensitivity
differs across cultures
What a stranger is may also differ.
Do the attachment categories apply?
Optimal styles of attachment may differs
From: https://www.verywellmind.com/mary-ainsworth-biography-2795501
Where is attachment research headed?
Stage Models and Culture: Piaget
Piaget’s Stage Model:
Sensorimotor > Pre-operational > Operational > Postoperational
Cultural Assessment:
• Piaget’s stages occur in the same fixed order in other cultures
• Cultural variations exist at the age where children in different
societies reach third and fourth Piagetian stages
• The order in which children acquire specific skills within Piaget's
stages varies
• Different societies value and reward different skills and behaviors
Stage Models and Culture: Kohlberg
Stages:
- Preconventional
- Conventional
- Postconventional
Cross-cultural Assessment:
Stage 1 and 2 seem universal
Highest stage (postconventional) is not convincing
People from different cultures reason differently about moral
dilemmas
Differences in morality = possibility of major intercultural
conflicts
What have we
covered?
Temperament is influential in determining how children
and caregivers interact.
A match between the demands of a context and a
specific temperament is important.
While attachment is a universal need, the methods of
attachment research are not applicable for all cultural
groups, and more emphasis is needed on understanding
what is adapative or maladaptive across contexts.
While stage models often have a sequence that is
(almost) universal, there are important limitations to their
cross-cultural applicability.
