The Ontogeny of Cultural Learning

Does the Body Survive Death? Cultural Variation in Beliefs About Life Everlasting

Mounting evidence suggests that endorsement of psychological continuity and the afterlife increases with age. This developmental change raises questions about the cognitive biases, social representations, and cultural input that may support afterlife beliefs. To what extent is there similarity versus diversity across cultures in how people reason about what happens after death? The objective of this study was to compare beliefs about the continuation of biological and psychological functions after death in Tanna, Vanuatu (a Melanesian archipelago), and the United States (Austin, Texas). Children, adolescents, and adults were primed with a story that contained either natural (non-theistic) or supernatural (theistic) cues. Participants were then asked whether or not different biological and psychological processes continue to function after death. We predicted that across cultures individuals would be more likely to endorse the continuation of psychological processes over biological processes (dualism) and that a theistic prime would increase continuation responses regarding both types of process. Results largely supported predictions; U.S. participants provided more continuation responses for psychological than biological processes following both the theistic and non-theistic primes. Participants in Vanuatu, however, provided more continuation responses for biological than psychological processes following the theistic prime. The data provide evidence for both cultural similarity and variability in afterlife beliefs and demonstrate that individuals use both natural and supernatural explanations to interpret the same events.

Parents scaffold flexible imitation during early childhood

Children use imitation flexibly to acquire the instrumental skills and conventions of their social groups. This study (N=69 parent and 3- to 6-year-old child dyads) examined the impact of instrumental versus conventional language on (a) children's imitative flexibility in the context of parent-child interaction and (b) how parents scaffold children's imitation. Children in dyads presented with conventional language imitated with higher fidelity than children in dyads presented with instrumental language. Parents in dyads presented with conventional language also provided their children with more instruction to imitate and engaged in more encouragement, demonstration, and monitoring than parents in dyads presented with instrumental language. The relation between language cue and children's imitative fidelity was mediated by parent scaffolding behavior. The results provide evidence that caregivers support the development of flexible imitation during early childhood by adjusting their scaffolding according to the goal of the behavior.

The discrepancy between macro culture and individual, lived psychology: An ethnographic example of Chinese moral behavior

This paper seeks to explain the fact that particular cultural structures, artifacts, policies, and values often do not generate corresponding individual behavior/psychology that they are expected to produce. This discrepancy is troubling to the science of cultural psychology/sociocultural activity theory that seeks to understand the cultural organization of psychology; and it it is troubling to policy makers who strive to organize behavior (religious tolerance, diligent work habits, educational learning) through cultural structures and policies. I discuss two explanations for this discrepancy. One is that individual processes contradict cultural influences on psychology. The other explanation is that culture is multifaceted, and cultural factors other than an expected one, are influential in organizing a psychology. I illustrate the second explanation with a case study of moral behavior among Chinese elementary students. These youngsters disobeyed moral teaching in school because they were more influenced by outside influences, ranging from Chinese traditional relations called Guanxi, to modern commercial, privatizing practices. This paper uses individual variations and contradictions in cultural psychology to refine the epistemology and ontology of cultural theory.