2-071 - Diverse Perspectives: Pushing Developmental Research Beyond WEIRD Samples

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

To date, the majority of psychological research has primarily focused on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD; Henrich & Heine, 2010) samples. Moreover, research on children’s social perceptions and reasoning has only begun to consider how diverse contexts and identities impact various child outcomes (e.g., Dunham & Olson, 2016). With recent discussions sparking questions about the generalizability of developmental methods (Nielsen, Haun, Kartner, & Legare, 2017), this symposium argues that explicitly testing the role contextual background plays in cognitive development is essential for pushing research beyond limited WEIRD perspectives.

First, Paper 1 explains how growing up in a context with no racial majority (Hawaii) versus a more racially homogeneous context influences children’s racial label knowledge and perceptions. Next, Paper 2 extends this contextual question cross-culturally by investigating racially ambiguous face categorization outcomes for Taiwanese and Asian American children, highlighting that essentialist beliefs and ambiguous categorizations differ by cultural context. Paper 3 establishes population-level differences in relational reasoning in Chinese and American children, providing evidence that the development of abstract thought may be far more context-sensitive than previously assumed. Finally, Paper 4 tests commonly utilized Western methods for measuring racial group learning preferences in an Eastern context to examine whether Hong Kong Chinese children who, despite growing up in a racially homogeneous society, are impacted by their exposure to other-race individuals in both home and school contexts. In sum, these data demonstrate that by diversifying recruitment sources, the generalizability and uniqueness of context on children’s development can be better understood.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chairs

• Eva E Chen, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

• Sarah E. Gaither, Duke University

Individual Presentations

• A Comparison of Children’s Racial Categorization in Racially Diverse and Homogeneous Environments - Presenting Author: Elizabeth L. Brey, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Non-Presenting Author: Ashley M. Biddle, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Non-Presenting Author: Cara Bellwood, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Non-Presenting Author: Kristin Pauker, University of Hawaii

• Cross-Cultural Examinations of Racially Ambiguous Face Categorization: An American and Taiwanese Comparison - Presenting Author: Sarah E. Gaither, Duke University; Non-Presenting Author: Chun-Man Chen, Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University; Non-Presenting Author: Sarina Hui-Lin Chien, China Medical University

• Diversity in Learning Contexts Shapes the Early Development of Relational Reasoning - Presenting Author: Caren Walker, University of California, San Diego; Non-Presenting Author: Alexandra Carstensen, Radboud University; Non-Presenting Author: Jing Zhang, Zhejiang Normal University; Non-Presenting Author: Gail D Heyman, University of California, San Diego; Non-Presenting Author: Genyue Fu, Hangzhou Normal University; Non-Presenting Author: Kang Lee, University of Toronto

• Examining the Influence of Social Group Information on the Preferences of Hong Kong Chinese Children - Presenting Author: Eva E Chen, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology; Non-Presenting Author: Kathleen Helen Corriveau, Boston University; Non-Presenting Author: Veronica K.W. Lai, Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Non-Presenting Author: Sarah E. Gaither, Duke University