This stage examines whether child development follows universal patterns across different cultures or whether significant cultural variations exist. It highlights that much of the existing research on child development is influenced by Western norms and fails to adequately represent the diverse experiences of children globally, emphasizing the need to consider cultural context in understanding developmental pathways.
Simplify what the following stage means or focuses on in two sentences
1.5.4 Universality or Cultural Context?
Do all children in the world follow universal (the same) developmental pathways, or
are there clear differences along cultural lines? (Universality means existing worldwide,
i.e. characteristics shared by everyone.) For decades, child development was believed
to follow the same pattern of development in all countries and cultures. This view was
especially popular among psychologists who believed that development is discontinuous
and therefore develops in stages that have universal characteristics. A primary reason
for the wide acceptance of this viewpoint was that psychology as we know it developed
mainly in Western cultures, and developmental researchers in these countries, especially
in the USA and Europe, focused almost exclusively on their own cultures. In fact, most child
psychology textbooks used in non-Western countries are published by Western countries,
especially the USA. The inevitable result is that, strictly speaking, the data on child
development in most publications worldwide refers to the behaviour of children in so-called
WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) populations. In fact, more
than 90% of psychological data (about 70% of the USA alone) come from countries that
represent only about 10 % of the world's population (Geeraert, 2018; Nielsen et al, 2017).
In this regard, Nsamenang (2002, p. 63) states the following: The ethnocentrism has been
so overwhelming that the majority of both scholars and lay persons are unaware that
the field would have been different had [childhood] been 'discovered' within the cultural
conditions and life circumstances different than those of Europe and North America, say
in Africa. This means, regrettably, that research efforts have so far failed to capture what
[childhood] truly is in its global context. Instead, scholars have tended to create, or more
accurately, to recast the African or other non-Western images of childhood in the shadow
of Euro-American children. This still is a very unfortunate situation, as the majority of
children do not live in the USA or even in all the Western countries combined.
However, as the horizons of psychology started to expand, many researchers began
to realise that the cultural context in which a person develops cannot be discarded.
(Culture refers to the beliefs, norms, customs, and general way of life of a specific group
of people, which are passed on from generation to generation. Context, a term you will
often encounter in psychology, refers to the setting or specific environment in which
development and behaviour occur.) More recently, numerous psychological studies have
been conducted in most countries in the world, confirming that cultural factors can play
an important role in a child's development (Huang, 2018; Packer, 2021). Nsamenang
(2003) points out that culture influences development by ensuring that children acquire
appropriate cognitive, communicative, motivational, and social-emotional or affective and
spiritual attributes, as well as practical skills that will make them competent adults who
will contribute to their own survival and progress and that of their people and society.
Therefore, to a great extent, human development is a cultural process. In every society,
children are exposed to mostly cultural, not universal, influences. Therefore, it should be considered that paths of development in one culture may be
very different from paths in other cultures. For example, consider a collectivist culture
that is quite common in Africa and where children grow up in an environment where the
needs of the group are regarded as much more important than the needs of the individual.
Compare this with an individualistic society (to which most Western cultures belong) where
to a large extent a child is exposed to an environment where people view themselves as
separate entities and mainly are concerned with their own needs.
Another important influence in the socialisation of children is the role of parental
practices in a culture. For example, in most African cultures, young children are usually
much more involved in domestic duties than children in developed countries are. It is
customary practice to send children on errands, which is a way of utilising the shared
community responsibility for rearing children. Therefore, if this example is used, it could
be interpreted that what is viewed as unfair child labour in one culture, may be viewed as
a normal and even necessary socialisation practice in another — children are provided
with the opportunity to interact in the community, which offers valuable vocational training
(Adongteng-Kissi, 2018; Potter, 2016). An interesting research finding indicated that
children assigned to take care of their younger siblings, which often happens in African
cultures, tend to show more nurturing behaviour than children do who spend more time
with their peers, such as in the USA. The latter group tend to show more competitive and
attention-seeking behaviour (Smith et al., 2011). However, several research studies in
South Africa have found that in cases where children must care for other siblings, for
example where one or both parents died of AIDS, they are at risk for physical and mental
health problems (see Chapter 7).
Not only psychological development is affected by culture. It seems that even behaviour
with a biological basis could be influenced by cultural factors (Pogosyan, 2017; Sasaki,
2017). For example, in communities where high value is placed on motor development such as crawling, standing, and walking, these milestones are reached earlier. This is
probably because the children receive more encouragement to develop in this area. When
considering that culture may also influence important aspects of life, such as the opinions
of a community about what moral and intelligent behaviour is, the influence of culture
becomes clearer.
Conversely, care should be taken not to overemphasise the role of culture. This is
especially true in countries such as South Africa where cultural dimensions such as race
are often used to promote political and personal ideologies. First, it should be considered
that the differences in one culture are often larger than the differences between cultures
(Kirkman et al., 2016). In this regard, Billikopf (2014, p. 391) states, "When the superficial
exterior is peeled off, there are not so many differences after all." Think of your own culture,
and you will find that you often have less in common with many of your own people than
with some people from other cultures. This situation is emphasised by the existence of
distinct sub-cultures in one culture. For example, the rural Zulu, Xhosa, or Afrikaner may
have norms and child-rearing practices that differ significantly from those of their urban
counterparts. Second, culture is not a static process. Even in 'traditional' Africa, cultural
and developmental norms are not static; they are contested socially and changing rapidly in
response to contact with other cultures, ecological shifts, and existential dynamics. Third,
the already-mentioned golden rule in psychology should always be remembered: Every
individual is unique, even in a cultural or sub-cultural context. Culture does not neutralise
this uniqueness. Every person, especially South Africans with their unique history and
multicultural society, should therefore guard against that appalling human characteristic
of generalisation. In science, and therefore also in child psychology, this is a golden rule.
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