Adolescence can be a time of both disorientation and discovery, questions of independence and
identity, difficult choices about academics, friendship, sexuality, gender identity, drugs, and alcohol
Relatively egocentric perspective on life; a state of mind that usually abates (vermindert) with age,
focus on themselves and believe that everyone else is focused on them too, grapple with insecurities
and feelings of being judged. Relationships with family members often take a backseat to peer
groups, romantic interests, and appearance, which teens perceive as increasingly important during
this time.
Adolescence: transition from childhood into adulthood
Erikson
- Intermediate period of moratorium (delay to adulthood)
- Peer groups are important
- Independent adult roles emerge
Human Relations Area Files: data base of ethnographic information from different cultures
Adolescence usually starts with puberty, sudden transition from childhood to new roles and
responsibilities, courtship (looking around for partner), peer groups are important
Common across cultural/social contexts: social sanctions for deviations from social norms are
perceived as appropriate (confrontation, gossip)
Differences between adolescents and young adults across cultures: time for moratorium to try out
different roles and identities only in contexts with extended schooling and wealth
Storm and stress
Problems may mostly arise in western societies
- Long period of adolescence
- Absence of clear rituals
- Little involvement in adult duties and responsibilities
Period of preparation for independence from parents
- Only in societies where adulthood implies being independent from parents
- Non-industrial societies: less independent from family less storm and stress
Stronger focus on peer relationships, but most time spent is with adults of the same gender
Gender differences: male adolescents spend more time with peer groups than female adolescents,
peer groups of girls are usually smaller and less significant than those boys
Boys and girls are socialized differently
Emerging adulthood: late teen years to mid-twenties
- Identity explorations (love, work)
- Instability
- Self-focus
- Feeling in-between (not adolescent but not adult)
- Felt possibilities (optimistic outlook on adult life)
- Widespread education and training beyond secondary school
- Relatively late entry into marriage/parenthood
- Characteristic of more developed countries
,WEIRD: western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
Why it can be a problem if most participants in research are from WEIRD cultures
- Lack of generalizability
- Wrong conclusions (not “all” people)
- Interventions may not work or even be counterproductive (iatrogenic effects)
o Scientific and medical norms from WEIRD contexts are imposed on other contexts
o Incorrectly categorize/diagnose people; pathologized
Why it can be a problem if most researchers in research are from WEIRD cultures
- Our cultural background influences what we find, how we interpret our findings, what we
conclude, what we research and how we research it (reflexivity)
- Scientific colonialism
Suggestions to change WEIRD behavioral sciences
- Editors and reviewers push researchers to support generalizations with evidence
- Granting agencies, reviewers and editors give credit for diverse and inconvenient subject
pools
- Granting agencies prioritize cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural research
- Researchers evaluate how findings apply to other populations
Positionality: all the characteristics making up who you are and how you view the world (beliefs)
Reflexivity: the influence of one’s positionality on the research process and interpretations of
research outcomes
- Choice of topics
- What is considered a desirable outcome
- Interpretation of study results
, No right definition of culture. Examples:
- Human-made part of the human environment
o Physical environment
o Social systems
- Patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in
artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (historically) ideas and especially
their attached values
- The totality of equivalent and complementary learned meanings maintained by a human
population, or by identifiable segments of a population, and transmitted from one generation
to the next
o Shared interpretations of the world
o Implicit rules/behavior
- The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or
category of people from others
In this course: intersubjective understanding of culture:
- Culture consists of shared ideas, shared interpretations, thinking, feeling, practices/behavior
- These are passed on from one generation to the next
- These shared ideas help us live together in groups, although members of these groups have
different (sometimes conflicting) aims
- Culture develops in all kinds of groups that live in different contexts
o Geographical (countries, urban areas)
o Social (groups with different SES, gender, political orientation)
o Temporal (over time)
Critique to individualism-collectivism
- Very broad concept, summarizing many different aspects
o Being interdependent vs. independent
o Prioritizing family aims/values or their own aims/values
o More traditional family structures vs. stronger emphasis on chosen relationships
Often unclear what exactly is meant
- Many different types of collectivism, while much research is based on East Asian collectivism
Social norms: what is typically done or ought to be done?
- Descriptive norms: unwritten rules about what most people do (most adolescents have had a
lover when they are 18)
- Prescriptive/injunctive norms: unwritten rules about what people should do (adolescents
should not have any romantic relationships before marriage)
Values: what is desirable and important?
- Family, wealth, stability etc. (family is everything, my faith is central in my life)
identity, difficult choices about academics, friendship, sexuality, gender identity, drugs, and alcohol
Relatively egocentric perspective on life; a state of mind that usually abates (vermindert) with age,
focus on themselves and believe that everyone else is focused on them too, grapple with insecurities
and feelings of being judged. Relationships with family members often take a backseat to peer
groups, romantic interests, and appearance, which teens perceive as increasingly important during
this time.
Adolescence: transition from childhood into adulthood
Erikson
- Intermediate period of moratorium (delay to adulthood)
- Peer groups are important
- Independent adult roles emerge
Human Relations Area Files: data base of ethnographic information from different cultures
Adolescence usually starts with puberty, sudden transition from childhood to new roles and
responsibilities, courtship (looking around for partner), peer groups are important
Common across cultural/social contexts: social sanctions for deviations from social norms are
perceived as appropriate (confrontation, gossip)
Differences between adolescents and young adults across cultures: time for moratorium to try out
different roles and identities only in contexts with extended schooling and wealth
Storm and stress
Problems may mostly arise in western societies
- Long period of adolescence
- Absence of clear rituals
- Little involvement in adult duties and responsibilities
Period of preparation for independence from parents
- Only in societies where adulthood implies being independent from parents
- Non-industrial societies: less independent from family less storm and stress
Stronger focus on peer relationships, but most time spent is with adults of the same gender
Gender differences: male adolescents spend more time with peer groups than female adolescents,
peer groups of girls are usually smaller and less significant than those boys
Boys and girls are socialized differently
Emerging adulthood: late teen years to mid-twenties
- Identity explorations (love, work)
- Instability
- Self-focus
- Feeling in-between (not adolescent but not adult)
- Felt possibilities (optimistic outlook on adult life)
- Widespread education and training beyond secondary school
- Relatively late entry into marriage/parenthood
- Characteristic of more developed countries
,WEIRD: western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
Why it can be a problem if most participants in research are from WEIRD cultures
- Lack of generalizability
- Wrong conclusions (not “all” people)
- Interventions may not work or even be counterproductive (iatrogenic effects)
o Scientific and medical norms from WEIRD contexts are imposed on other contexts
o Incorrectly categorize/diagnose people; pathologized
Why it can be a problem if most researchers in research are from WEIRD cultures
- Our cultural background influences what we find, how we interpret our findings, what we
conclude, what we research and how we research it (reflexivity)
- Scientific colonialism
Suggestions to change WEIRD behavioral sciences
- Editors and reviewers push researchers to support generalizations with evidence
- Granting agencies, reviewers and editors give credit for diverse and inconvenient subject
pools
- Granting agencies prioritize cross-disciplinary, cross-cultural research
- Researchers evaluate how findings apply to other populations
Positionality: all the characteristics making up who you are and how you view the world (beliefs)
Reflexivity: the influence of one’s positionality on the research process and interpretations of
research outcomes
- Choice of topics
- What is considered a desirable outcome
- Interpretation of study results
, No right definition of culture. Examples:
- Human-made part of the human environment
o Physical environment
o Social systems
- Patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols,
constituting the distinctive achievement of human groups, including their embodiment in
artifacts; the essential core of culture consists of traditional (historically) ideas and especially
their attached values
- The totality of equivalent and complementary learned meanings maintained by a human
population, or by identifiable segments of a population, and transmitted from one generation
to the next
o Shared interpretations of the world
o Implicit rules/behavior
- The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or
category of people from others
In this course: intersubjective understanding of culture:
- Culture consists of shared ideas, shared interpretations, thinking, feeling, practices/behavior
- These are passed on from one generation to the next
- These shared ideas help us live together in groups, although members of these groups have
different (sometimes conflicting) aims
- Culture develops in all kinds of groups that live in different contexts
o Geographical (countries, urban areas)
o Social (groups with different SES, gender, political orientation)
o Temporal (over time)
Critique to individualism-collectivism
- Very broad concept, summarizing many different aspects
o Being interdependent vs. independent
o Prioritizing family aims/values or their own aims/values
o More traditional family structures vs. stronger emphasis on chosen relationships
Often unclear what exactly is meant
- Many different types of collectivism, while much research is based on East Asian collectivism
Social norms: what is typically done or ought to be done?
- Descriptive norms: unwritten rules about what most people do (most adolescents have had a
lover when they are 18)
- Prescriptive/injunctive norms: unwritten rules about what people should do (adolescents
should not have any romantic relationships before marriage)
Values: what is desirable and important?
- Family, wealth, stability etc. (family is everything, my faith is central in my life)
