How do we define „culture”? How does culture influence child rearing, which, in turn, influences children’s development? In this seminar we will go through different theoretical models that explain the construct of culture. Furthermore, we will talk about the role that the cultural environment plays in several children’s developmental processes, such as moral development, prosocial development, attachment, temperament and the construction of the self and identity. Based on actual cross-cultural findings, we will reconsider the classical theoretical approaches that explain child development.
Requisites to pass the seminar: Oral presentation on one topic and reading assignments (including preparation of questions for discussion)
What is „culture”? How does culture influence our ways of thinking and behaving? How does culture influence child rearing, that in turn, influences children’s development? In this seminar we will go through different theoretical models that explain the influence of culture on human behavior. In order to understand the mechanisms underlying the influence of culture on human development, we will focus on the influence of culture on prosocial behaviors. Therefore, we will view classical theories on moral understanding from a cross-cultural approach, talk about the development of prosocial behavior in different cultural contexts (e.g., “Western” and indigenous contexts), and discuss the influence of culture on children’s and adults’ motivation to engage in prosocial behaviors. Students will be able to analyze video-data, focusing on the cross-cultural differences in children’s prosocial behaviors in two different cultural contexts (Münster and Ibarra, Ecuador).
- Lehrende/r: Marta Giner Torréns