A Cultural Approach to Human Development

1. 1 A Cultural Approach to Human Development

2. Introduction to Human Development • Human Development-the way people grow and change across the lifespan • Culture- the total pattern of a group’s customs, beliefs, art, and technology • Globalization-connections between different parts of the world in trade, travel, migration and communication

3. Human Development Today and Its Origins

4. For most of history, human population was under 10 million. Population began to increase significantly about 10,000 years ago due to the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals. Not until about 400 years ago did the population reach 500 million. It took about 150 years for the population to double to 1 billion (1800). In the 20th century, as a consequence of medical advances, the population reached 2 billion by 1930, 6 billion by 1999, and 7 billion by 2011. The projected population by 2050 will be 9 billion.

5. Variations Across Countries Developed Countries-most affluent countries in the world 18% of total world population (1.2 billion) Developing Countries-less wealth than the developed countries (5.8 billion) 82% of total world population Among developed countries, the US is one of the few likely to gain population. (310 million today; by 2050, 439 million)

6. United States Variation • Two reasons the US follows a different demographic path • Total Fertility rate is higher than most developing countries (2.0) • United States allows more LEGAL immigration than most developing countries

7. Map 1.1 Projected Ethnic Changes in U.S. Population to 2050. By 2050, the proportion of the US population that is Latino is projected to rise from 16% to 30%.

8. More Cultural Variation • Variations between developing and developed countries • Income • Education • Cultural Beliefs • Individualism • Collectivism

9. Map 1.2 Worldwide Variations in Population and Income Levels Developed countries represent only 18% of the world population yet they are much wealthier than developing countries. With regard to income, 40% of the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day, and 80% of the world’s population lives on a family income of less than $6,000 per year.

10. Map 1.2 Worldwide Variations in Population and Income Levels Developed countries represent only 18% of the world population yet they are much wealthier than developing countries. At what point in its economic development should a developing country be reclassified as a developed country? (continued from previous slide)

11. Variations Within Countries • Majority culture-Sets norms and standards • Contexts-Settings and circumstances • SES (Socioeconomic Status)-social class including educational level, income level and occupational status

12. Variations Within Countries • Gender-Expectations of male and female roles • Ethnicity-Cultural origin, traditions, race, religion and language

13. Human Origins and the Birth of Culture

14. Evolutionary Beginnings • Evolutionary theory proposed by Charles Darwin • Natural selection • Young are born with variations of characteristics • Species change little by little each generation

15. Evolutionary Beginnings • Humans’ evolutionary beginning shares ancestry with chimpanzees and gorillas • Human evolutionary line called hominid line • Hominid line split resulting in Homo species • Homo species evolved into Homo sapiens

16. Figure 1.2 Changes in Brain Size in Early Humans

17. The Origin of Cultures and Civilizations • Upper Paleolithic Period • Art appeared, trade, cultural differences appeared • Neolithic Period • Last Ice Age • Development of Civilization • Including Egyptian, India, China and Mediterranean

18. Figure 1.3 Time Line of Human History From Upper Paleolithic Period to the Present (continued on next slide)

19. Figure 1.3 Time Line of Human History From Upper Paleolithic Period to the Present (continued from previous slide)

20. Human Evolution and Human Development Today • Human development can be understood by understanding human evolution • Development is partly based on evolution • Little biological change since Homo sapiens • Development of larger brain contributes to culture and environmental expansion

21. CULTURE • Culture refers to all of the people’s shared knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions (artifacts). • Culture in its broadest sense is cultivated behavior; that is the totality of a person's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior through social learning. • A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

22. RACE RACE is a socially constructed category of people who share biologically transmitted traits that members of a society consider important. People may classify one another racially on the basis of physical characteristics such as skin color, facial feature, hair texture, and body shape. It is true that human beings differ in any number of ways involving physical traits, but a “race” comes into being only when the members of a society decide that some particular physical trait actually matters.

23. ETHNICITY • Ethnicity is a shared cultural heritage. People define themselves—or others—as members of an ethnic category based on common ancestry, language, and religion that give them a distinctive social identity.

24. Theories of Human Development

25. Ancient Conceptions of Development:Hindu

26. Ancient Conceptions of Development: Greek

27. Ancient Conceptions of Development: Jewish Talmud

28. Ancient Conceptions of Development: Jewish Talmud (Continued from previous slide)

29. Ancient Conceptions of Development • Similarities in all three • Youth is for preparation • Adulthood is for experience • Old age is for wisdom and peace • Difference is found in division of lifespan • Lifespan not cleanly divided by biology but culturally and socially based

30. Scientific Conceptions of Human Development • Scientific theories have been around for a short time • The major theories of conceptualizing development are: • Psychoanalytic theory • Psychosexual-Freud • Psychosocial-Erikson • Ecological Approach • Bronfenbrenner

31. Freud’s Psychosexual Theory • Based on Freud’s belief of sexual desire as the driving force behind human development • Driven by three psychic structures • Id-Basis is pleasure principle • Superego-Basis of conscience • Ego-Basis of reality

32. Freud’s Psychosexual Theory • Psychosexual stages focused on areas of sensation and fixation • Limits include: Complexity of human behavior and Freud’s research methodology

33. Table 1.1 Freud’s Psychosexual Stages

34. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory • Focuses on social and cultural environment and not sexuality • Continued throughout lifespan and not limited to first six years as Freud • Eight stages of development characterized by crisis and resolution

35. Table 1.2 Erikson’s Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development

36. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory • Focuses on multiple influences that shape behavior and is not a stage theory • Five levels: • Micro System-Immediate environment • MesoSystem-Interconnections • Exosystem-Social Institutions • Macrosystem-Cultural Beliefs • Chronosystem-Time

37. Urie Bronfenbrenner

39. Sociocultural Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological). This applies equally to voluntary attention, to logical memory, and to the formation of ideas. All the higher functions originate as actual relationships between individuals.” Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934 Emergent Theories

40. Sociocultural Mental abilities and processes are viewed in terms of the historical sequence of events that produced them. Piaget believed that all children’s cognitive processes follow a very similar pattern of stages. Vygotsky saw intellectual abilities as being much more specific to the culture in which the child was reared. Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934 Emergent Theories

41. Sociocultural Culture makes two sorts of contributions to the child’s intellectual development. First, children acquire much of their knowledge from it. Second, children acquire the processes or means of their thinking (tools of intellectual adaptation) from the surrounding culture. Therefore, culture provides children with the tools to think, with what to think, and with how to think. Lev Vygotsky 1896-1934 Emergent Theories

42. Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory • Focuses on multiple influences that shape behavior and is not a stage theory • Five levels: • Micro System-Immediate environment • MesoSystem-Interconnections • Exosystem-Social Institutions • Macrosystem-Cultural Beliefs • Chronosystem-Time

43. Stage Theory • Prenatal Development • Infancy • Toddlerhood • Early childhood • Middle Childhood • Adolescence • Emerging adulthood • Young adulthood • Middle adulthood • Late Adulthood

44. How We Study Human Development

45. Scientific Study of Human Development • The scientific method • The scientific method is composed of 5 steps • Identifying a question • Forming a hypothesis • Choosing a research method or design • Collecting data • Drawing conclusions

46. Figure 1.5 The Steps of the Scientific Method

47. The Five Steps of the Scientific Method • Every study starts with an idea or question • Can come from previous research, a theory or personal observation • Forming a hypothesis • The researcher’s idea about a possible answer to a research question • Will dictate research methods, design, and analysis

48. The Five Steps of the Scientific Method • Choose a research method and design • The way hypotheses are investigated • Collecting data • Researchers try to collect a sample that represents the population • Draw conclusions • Data is inferred and peer reviewed • Can lead to theory modification or changes

49. Ethics in Human Development Research • Institutional Review Boards work to prevent ethical violations • Ethical guidelines include • Protection from physical and psychological harm • Informed consent prior to participation • Confidentiality • Deception and debriefing

50. Methods and Designs in Research • Researchers use various methods to investigate human development • Questionnaires • Close or Open ended • Interviews-qualitative • Observations • Ethnographic Research • Case studies • Biological Methods