PSY 3126 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Feral Child, Critical Period, Canadian Identity
28 Apr 2018
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September 27, 2017
Development and Socialization
Definitions
Development: process by which we develop into adults
Socialization: the process by which an individual learns and internalizes the cultural ideas that are relevant and
appropriate to their context
-Cultural ideas/values/norms/practices are transmitted through social learning
•NB: these aren’t present from birth
-“Universal brains develop into culturally variable minds”
Sensitive Periods Throughout Development
Sensitive period: period during which an organism’s development allows for relatively easy acquisition of a skill
-Outside of these periods, skill aren’t as easily achieved - transition from emphasizing the acquisition of new skills to
specialization of acquired skills
Sensitive periods for language acquisition: humans are born with a biological predisposition to learn any language ,
but after being exposed to a particular language environment, the mind specializes by attending to the features of that
language, while ignoring meaningless distractions
-Humans are capable of producing ~150 different phonemes (units of sound), but no language uses more than 70
•Very difficult to produce and distinguish between sounds not in your language
-As we are exposed to a language, we begin to categorize sounds in ways that are used by that language
-Within the first year, infants already begin to lose the ability to distinguish between closely related sounds that
aren’t in their language
-Sensitive period for language likely closes around 10-12 months
•Ex. Werker & Tees (1984): tested English and Hindi 6-8 month-olds and 10-12 month-olds on two distinctive
sounds in Hindi
•Younger infants from both cultures could hear the difference, but older English-speaking infants could not
-The universal human ability of being able to distinguish all possible phonemes heard during the critical window of
language development
-Case studies: looked at effect of having no exposure to language
•Feral children: found in the wild after growing up by themselves with no human interaction
-These children were never able to develop true language abilities
-Were never able to internalize the abstract rules of grammar and syntax
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•Genie: severely neglected child who was looked in a room and shackled to her toilet, was never talked to, and
was only found at the age of 13
-Had no language input
-When she was found, the only words she knew were “stop it” and “no more”
-She was never able to develop natural human language
-She had very stilted sentences and was only able to convey very basic ideas
Sensitive periods for cultural acquisition: much more difficult to assess than language acquisition
-Cheung, Chudek & Heine (2011): studied cultural identification with both Chinese and Canadian culture among
Hong Kong immigrants in Vancouver
•Focused on a) age of immigration and b) years spent in Canada
•Found no relation between these two factors and Chinese identity
-Were able to maintain their heritage culture regardless of age of immigration and years spent in Canada
•Found that the younger you immigrate, the more likely you were to identify with Canadian culture
-Effect was strongest between 0-15 and the longer you had been in Canada the more likely you were to
identify as Canadian
•Indicates that you continue to gain culture over time
-No effect of years spent in Canada and Canadian identity for those 16 years and older
•Indicates that you do not gain culture any more
-**0-15 is most likely the sensitive period for cultural acquisition
-NB: it appears to be more difficult to gain new culture if moving to a place with ethnic enclaves (ex. Chinatown),
causing the cultural period not to be as clear-cut in these cases
•But younger is still more likely to identify with the new culture
Cultural Divergence Emerges with Age
Since people are born cultures and acquire their culture as they are socialized, cultural differences in psychological
processes should become more pronounced with age
Ex. Study looked at the tendency to predict the future and perceive how it will change
-Collectivistic cultures: think the future is more likely to change
-Individual cultures: tend to extrapolate from the past and assume current trends will continue
-Found that 7 year old Chinese and Canadian children were equally likely to say that the future will change
-Found that 9 year old and 11 year old Canadian children were more likely to say that the future will not change
•Diverged from the Chinese children
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Developmental pattern of diverging with age has been shown for multiple phenomena
-Ex. Explanation of others’ behaviours, optimism, and tendencies to focus on positive aspects of the self
How do early childhood experiences differ across cultures?
Early mother-child interactions: infants’ experiences with personal space varies markedly across cultures
-Ex. Westerners use strollers, other cultures strap the babies to the mother
-Mothers’ pattern of interacting with her infant subtly conveys to the infant different views of the self
•In urban Western contexts, infants spend more time face-to-face with their mothers and experience more
contingent, turn-taking interactions
-Instills a self-concept that is relatively separate and agentic
•In other contexts, infants are less likely to occupy their own personal space and to experience contingent
responding
-Instills a self-concept that is less distinct and more connected
-Ex. Keller (2007): observed mother-child dyads across very diverse cultural contexts
•Looked at 100 minutes of video observation per family and calculated the amount of time the mother was in
bodily (proximal) contact and face-to-face (distal) contact with infant
•Found that there was quite a difference in the amount of time that infants spend in physical contact with their
mothers
-Ex. Keller et al. (2005): mothers’ contingent responding predicted mirror-self recognition
•German mothers respond more contingently to infants’ cries than Cameroonian mothers
-German mothers respond more if the baby’s cries
-Need the vocalization first - more of a back-and-forth reaction
•German infants achieved mirror self-recognition earlier than Cameroonian infants
-Mirror-self recognition: taken as a marker of seeing yourself as separate from your environment
-Looks at whether or not the baby touches their own forehead or touches their forehead in the mirror
•Results: mothers who respond more contingently to their children had infants who were able to recognize
themselves in the mirror earlier
•Unpackaging cultural differences in MSR: maternal contingent responding —> MSR
-Proposed maternal contingent responding as the variable that causes the difference
-Showed there was a different between maternal contingent responding
-Showed link to mirror self-recognition
Cultural practices can affect physical development: in some regions of Africa, the Caribbean, and India, infants
receive a daily massage and an exercise regime (ex. Stretching their limbs) and begin to sit and walk earlier
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Document Summary
Development: process by which we develop into adults. Socialization: the process by which an individual learns and internalizes the cultural ideas that are relevant and appropriate to their context. Cultural ideas/values/norms/practices are transmitted through social learning: nb: these aren"t present from birth. Universal brains develop into culturally variable minds . Sensitive period: period during which an organism"s development allows for relatively easy acquisition of a skill. Outside of these periods, skill aren"t as easily achieved - transition from emphasizing the acquisition of new skills to specialization of acquired skills. Humans are capable of producing ~150 different phonemes (units of sound), but no language uses more than 70: very dif cult to produce and distinguish between sounds not in your language. As we are exposed to a language, we begin to categorize sounds in ways that are used by that language.
