The Chinese single-child family programme and population psychology

American and Chinese Children’s Knowledge of Basic Relational Concepts

Three hundred kindergarten, first and second grade children from Beijing, China were given the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-Revised (BTBC-R) at the end of the school year. Their performance was compared with that of American children from the standardization sample of BTBC-R. This study explores two questions: (1) Will lexical diversity and morphological complexity affect the rate of acquisition of the basic relational concepts between children who speak distinctly different languages? and (2) to what extent do conceptual factors interact with linguistic differences in children’s development of basic relational concepts? Results showed that Chinese children acquired significantly more basic relational concepts than their American peers at both first and second grades did but not at kindergarten. This difference in acquisition is discussed in terms of the characteristics of the two languages. Nonlinguistic factors are discussed in terms of cultural and parental influences on young children’s conceptual development.

An introduction to Chinese psychology--its historical roots until the present day

In this article the authors review the historical development of Chinese psychology. China's long history as a country immersed in the study of psychological issues is well known and has had an influence on developments in the field of psychology around the world. Modern Chinese psychology, however, was imported from the West and the Soviet Union and has been closely linked with China's social environment and changes of national policy. Today Chinese psychology is still in a preliminary stage. Despite difficulties that may impede its future development, the importance of psychology in the modernization of China has been widely recognized.