History and Future of Development in Cross-Cultural Psychology

Abstract

Our theme is that better integration of a developmental approach into cross-cultural psychology can enhance the future of cross-cultural psychology—methodologically, theoretically, and empirically. Methodologically, developmental psychology contributes contextualized procedures, such as naturalistic observation, suitable for studying behavior in its cultural context. Theoretically, developmentalists point to the fact that the culturally constructed behavior of adults can be viewed as an endpoint along a developmental pathway and that adults provide cultural socialization to the next generation. Theoretically, development also leads to an understanding of how the biologically-grounded factor of maturational stage influences both the process and content of cultural learning. Empirically, a developmental approach leads researchers to investigate the culture-specific shape of developmental stages. These culture-specific developmental patterns are selections from among a set of biologically evolved propensities. As development progresses, culture-specific stages cohere into developmental pathways. Two pathways leading to independent and interdependent construals of the self are identified.