Avoiding Ethnocentrism in Behavioral Science through using a Culture and Human Development Approach

Session Type: Conversation Roundtable

Abstract

The past decades have produced a growing body of research in culture and human development, even as the field’s core identity has weakened. Cross-cultural psychology, psychological anthropology, cultural psychology, and indigenous psychology each made relevant contributions to developmental science. Nevertheless, in the first decades of the new millennium, most developmental scientists are still trained in mainstream psychology, while these wider interdisciplinary contributions are under-represented. Societal challenges faced in 2020 call for urgent reconsiderations of developmental science and stress the necessity of encountering and valuing culture in its own right while avoiding descriptions of normatively expected development.

During the recent SRCD anti-racism webinar, researchers discussed the necessity of acknowledging the ethnocentrism of current scientific concepts, measures, and approaches. Furthermore, in its mission statement, SRCD aims for a more integrative and inter-disciplinary developmental science. Racism is built on ethnocentrism, which in turn rests on ignorance. Structural racism is the cultural, institutional form that both reflects and recreates bigotry and intolerance. Through the study of culture and human development, we can broaden and deepen basic developmental concepts while improving the applicability of knowledge in specific contexts. As such, research on culture and human development can help us part from ethnocentrism in behavioral science. In the proposed conversation roundtable, an international group of developmental researchers will discuss possibilities and uses of culture and human development perspectives, particularly in the fight against bias and ethnocentric normativity in behavioral sciences.

Moderators: Saskia van Schaik, Sara Harkness, Charles Super
Panelists: Kofi Marfo, Silvia Koller, Florrie NG, Marea Tsamaase

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Moderator

• Saskia Dorien Mtendere Van Schaik, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen

Panelists

• Kofi Marfo, Aga Khan University - Kenya

• Silvia Helena Koller, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG)

• Florrie Fei-Yin Ng, Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

• Marea Maggie Tsamaase, University of Botswana