Culture and human development: Where did it go? And where is it going?

Abstract

Culture and human development blossomed as a research enterprise in the last quarter of the 20th century; the energy and innovation of that enterprise are less evident now. Where did it go, and where is it going? In this essay, we examine the shifting fields of cross-cultural psychology, psychological anthropology, cultural psychology, indigenous psychology, and the surge of research on Individualism/Collectivism. Offering both academic and personal perspectives, we reflect on the importance of "culture" as a construct, and the value of focusing on individual development in that context. The way forward now, we suggest, is international and intercultural collaboration of scientists. The challenge for training new researchers from diverse backgrounds, however, is to equip them with the knowledge and insights gained from cross-cultural psychology, psychological anthropology, and their own cultures, rather than simply making the next generation of scholars into new representatives of Western theories of development. On a late Sunday afternoon in March 2020-just before the COVID-19 pandemic kept us all home-a large group of academics gathered to honor Robert A. LeVine, emeritus professor of culture and human development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The group included a roster of people who had either worked with Bob or in parallel efforts, over several generations going back to John and Beatrice Whiting's students, up to recent graduates of the School who had counted Bob as their mentor, plus others who simply appreciated his contributions as a colleague. During a lull in the general chatter, one of the guests raised a question: Since Bob's retirement, how was the legacy of culture and human

Culture and Cognitive Development

“…The challenge for training new researchers from diverse backgrounds, however, is to equip them with the knowledge and insights gained from cross-cultural psychology, psychological anthropology, and their own cultures, rather than simply making the next generation of scholars into new representatives of Western theories of development. (in the Summary) Harkness and Super (2020a) also mention a very encouraging list of interesting recent developments, including the Oxford Handbook of Human Development and Culture: An interdisciplinary perspective, edited by Jensen (2016) of Clark University. This has evolved into a mainstream developmental psychology textbook which does take culture seriously (Jensen & Arnett, 2020) but I do not know to what extent this is used widely.…”

The Developmental Factors of Identity Strategies Variation among Schooled Central African Adolescent Refugees in the East-Region of Cameroon

“…The construction of the identity strategies identified during this research refers to what the literature attributes to the image that the individual has of himself, according to his beliefs, the representations of himself, which constitute a psychological structure allowing him to select his actions and his social relations, in his new living environment [23]. Thus, instead of the host cultural context, through its anthropomorphic beliefs and ethnotheories, being suicidogenic for these refugee adolescents, who are nevertheless daily confronted with relatively difficult socio-emotional situations, it seems in this research to be rather a protection factor against the risk of suicide.…”

Vocal communication across cultures: theoretical and methodological issues

“…Several interdisciplinary scholars have recently described issues facing current cross-cultural researchers (e.g. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]). Most of the concerns raised apply to vocal research in one way or another.…”