3-015 - From the general to the specific: Cross-cultural insights into socialization and social-cognitive development from the Pacific

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Developmental research provides vital insights into how cognitive processes operate with minimal environmental inputs. However, culture is essential for transmitting the patterns of environmental stimuli that scaffold young brains into adult forms. Cross-cultural comparisons provide a unique opportunity to investigate how the social environments built by culture interact with core cognitive processes to produce cultural differences across development. In this symposium, we draw from insights gleaned from ethnographic research around the Pacific that suggest particular cultural practices and norms that result in meaningful differences in social cognitive processing as children are socialized in culturally-specific ways. Particularly when contrasted with Western populations, insights from work with these Pacific cultures can provide deep insight into how culture and cognition intertwine across development. By examining how culture shapes development, we can better understand how and why cultural differences do or do not emerge as a response to specific socio-ecological constraints in varying cultural contexts. Our first presentation discusses how Opacity of Mind norms that discourage mental state inference produce cultural differences in socio-moral reasoning across development in Fiji. Next, we present evidence that Pacific families in New Zealand draw upon cultural values that emphasize either social relationships or one’s own mental states to socialize children into interpreting behaviors. We next discuss how cultural models of intelligence influence parents’ beliefs about children’s actions and abilities in Vanuatu. Finally, our discussant provides commentary on these presentations by drawing upon expertise in these cultures and in broader human trends of socialization, teaching, and development.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Rita Anne McNamara, Victoria University of Wellington

Discussant

• Michelle Ann Kline, Simon Fraser University

Individual Presentations

• Learning to see (or unsee) mind: Culture modulates intent vs. outcome focus across development - Presenting Author: Rita Anne McNamara, Victoria University of Wellington; Kiley Hamlin, University of British Columbia; Joseph Henrich, Harvard University

• Space to grow: A Longitudinal analysis of Pacific mothers’ and fathers’ language interactions with their preschool children - Presenting Author: Mele Taumoepeau, University of Otago

• Intelligence is in the Eyes of the Beholder: Cultural Variation in Adults' Beliefs About Children’s Competency and Conformity - Presenting Author: Nicole J. Wen, The University of Texas at Austin; Jennifer M. Clegg, Boston University; Cristine H Legare, University of Texas at Austin