Culture and Development

Due to its nature, when studying human development, it is inevitable to separate the subject from both biological and cultural factors. The nature of the subject makes it impossible to apply an approach that does not include multiple factors. Readings of these week focus on cultural effects on human development and when they do that, they do not eliminate biological factors. While looking at the development process, we see biological and cultural factors coexist and play their role in harmony.

Readings focus on two cultural models of human development: Psychological autonomy and hierarchical relatedness. The psychological autonomy model mostly focuses on concepts such as individualism, independency and autonomy. This model mostly incites the individual to become an independent person and makes the individual someone who creates their own values rather adapting to the norms of their society. On the contrary, hierarchical relatedness model mostly focuses on societal roles a person plays, adapting to the norms of the society which the individual is in. This model focuses on interdependency rather than independency and aims to protect and strengthen the bonds, hierarchy and relation types in the group.

Readings also talk about how some concepts such as language acquisition, even though they are mostly accepted as universal processes, can be in different forms according to their own culture. Based on the norms that can be associated with raising children, these processes can occur relatively earlier or later. This is mostly determined by the necessities and priorities that the child is born into. Based on these facts, human development studies that are west-centered cannot predict or provide healthy results, therefore their application may not be reliable. The most appropriate way to study human development is to stay within the lines of the studied culture.

As I understand, the human development is shaped by the biological and cultural necessities that the individual is born into. A baby gets hungry and finally realizes that he or she should cry in order to get their parents attention. Furthermore, a kid also may learn to not cry, and to regulate their emotion closely based on their culture. It may not be the best of metaphors, but in these manners, it seems to me that human beings are like a liquid, they take the shape of the pot they are in.