Emerging Perspectives on Human Development ... - Springer Link

Psychol Stud (October–December 2013) 58(4):349–352 DOI 10.1007/s12646-013-0234-6

EDITORIAL

Emerging Perspectives on Human Development Research Girishwar Misra & Nandita Babu

Published online: 4 February 2014 # National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2014

The study of human development is currently witnessing an exciting new phase of growth. There are concerted attempts to move beyond the Euro-American theories and explore culturally rooted perspectives. This trend is reflected in many ways including the use of indigenous concepts, methodological innovations and choice of research issues and problems. In this respect particular mention may be made of the endeavours aimed at identifying and analyzing various culturally embedded phenomena and exploring specific contextual influences on development. This special issue of Psychological Studies brings into focus an illustration of such efforts. In the disciplinary discourse it is being increasingly realized that the notion of ‘development’, which has been traditionally treated as ‘systematic and successive change in human functions’, does not represent an empirical concept. Also, there is a move to go beyond the various binary categories (e.g. nature vs. nurture, continuity vs. discontinuity and stability vs. instability) in accomplishing descriptions and explanations of developmentally important phenomena. These classic splits are being overcome by the relational meta theory of development (Overton 2010). It allows fusion of categories and acknowledges bidirectional influences emanating from multiple levels of existential organization (e.g. biological, individual, cultural, ecological and historical). The emerging relational meta theory maintains that the individual-context relationship may be studied in a fused, dynamic and integrated manner. It views ‘diversity’ or the intra-individual and the inter-individual differences as genuine and significant as they constitute the reality of multiple contexts of development. The G. Misra (*) : N. Babu Department of Psychology, Arts Faculty Extension Building, University of Delhi, Delhi 110007, India e-mail: [email protected] N. Babu e-mail: [email protected]

focus is more on the study of multiple and varied developmental trajectories of both–individuals and groups–and the way they interact to facilitate the emergence of specific developmental patterns. Currently, new perspectives such as dynamic system theory, dialogical approach to self development, and analyses of the uses of various symbolic resources in human development have influenced research on families, relationships, schooling and social negotiation with reference to issues such as gender, caste and religion. The process of development involves a dynamic relationship of the developing person with the socio-cultural environment. The intentionality and agency of the individual and the attributes of the socio-cultural environment constitute the core of this process. The meaning of life course or stages of development, the parenting practices and beliefs, disciplining techniques, teaching practices, privileges, rights, duties and responsibilities of children are culturally constructed and are transmitted across generations. However, the processes of industrialization, globalization, and revolution in the information and communication technology, are drastically transforming the pattern of interaction and modes of social life. Via media and travel, people are getting constantly exposed to values, norms and practices of other cultures. It is leading to creation of a hybrid culture. Its effect is visible in the practices of socialization and parenting. In traditional joint family setting child was as collective responsibility in which multiple caretakers were available. In today's nuclear families parents are bound to send their children to daycare centres. Similarly the practice of storytelling by grandparents is being taken over by television. The emerging scenario has serious implications for understanding the dynamics of life stages, preparing the institutions of society to facilitate adaptation and growth; and evolving effective strategies to address the various problems encountered by them. Contemporary studies tend to suggest that the development cannot be characterized solely as a process of cognitive restructuring directed towards a single, universal endpoint,

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and consummated within an individual. They question the centrality of an autonomous and individual subject. Instead, attention is directed towards social relationships, emotions and contexts. Concomitant to this is the shift of inquiry from laboratory and experimentation to encompass newer methodologies including ethological and ethnographic approaches, interpretive analyses, narrative inquiry and other types of research. The reflective awareness on the part of researchers and theorists has also led to increased awareness of social positions and responsibilities, and of values in terms of which research outcomes are evaluated. Of significance is the attention paid to the societal institutions in which children grow and become adults. In recent years researchers have shown a major concern for appreciating developmental phenomena from cross-cultural and cultural psychological vantage points. Instead of being a static set of values and practices as independent variable, culture is continuoually created and recreated as people question, adapt and redefine their values and practices owing to changes within a given cultural context as well as increasing intercultural contact in the globalizing world. These trends bring home the fact that the goals toward which development moves, as well as the nature of cultural practices that children and adults are engaged in while development takes place, are divergent in different cultural contexts (Anandlakshmy 2013; Sharma and Chaudhary 2009). As Bruner (1996) has argued, the evolution of human mind is critically linked to the development of a way of life where ‘reality’ is represented by a symbolism shared by the members of a given cultural community. This symbolic mode is not only shared by a community, but conserved, elaborated, and passed on to succeeding generations who, by virtue of this transmission, continue to maintain the culture’s identity and way of life. In the last few decades attention to culture in the developmental context has been receiving significant attention in multiple ways wherein it is recognized in terms of tools (Cole 1996), making of an intentional world (Shweder 1991), ways of relating to environment (Valsiner 1989, 2007) socialhistorical context (Vygotsky 1978), and guided participation (Rogoff 1991, 2005). While deliberating about culture, mention may be made of several myths that have prevailed in the political as well as academic circles. For instance, some cultures are seen and defined as ‘more developed’ and some as ‘less developed’. Similarly it is often held that cultural diversity inevitably leads to clashes in values. In other words, cultural diversity is taken as a hindrance to development rather than a context and meaning system that allows a range of possible ways of living life. Culture is to be appreciated as one of the new resources to achieve sustainable and equitable development. This special issue of Psychological Studies presents a cross section of studies that evinces a cultural contextual approach to development, and showcases some of the new initiatives in

Psychol Stud (October–December 2013) 58(4):349–352

the field of human development research. The contributing scholars with varied perspectives offer a comprehensive picture of the multifaceted nature of human development in a culturally diverse country like India. With cutting-edge discussion of theory and research, the contributors have addressed several socially pertinent issues including the lived experience of Indian adolescents and street children, changing meaning of romantic relationship of young adults, institution of marriage, spirituality and career development. The discussion by two contributors on the role of family in the nurturance of creativity in children and adults adds to the existing research on socialization of cognition in diverse family contexts. Research on cognitive assessment and cognitive development in school children has also been analyzed in two articles. Contributions in the current issue enrich the current debate on emergent perspectives and paradigms of research in the field of human development. A brief introduction to all the contributions to this issue seems to be in order. In the opening article, Saraswathi and Oke have articulated the features of developmental ecology of the Indian adolescents. Backed by empirical data from several sources they document serious inequities in adolescent experiences by region, gender, caste and social class. The contrast between the socially disadvantaged and privileged suggests that they belong to different worlds characterized by the differences in the experience of “freedom”. The authors have attended to the prevailing situation in the area of education, health and nutrition. They note that the country has registered literacy during the past decade, but universalization of primary education is still a remote goal. The right to education has raised optimism but the domains of health and nutrition continue to remain grave concerns. In particular, poor reproductive health, especially of young women at risk of early marriage and pregnancy, contributes to the cycle of deprivation, poor nutrition, ill health and low levels of well-being. Inadequate implementation of good policies and programs often cause despondency. As the nation stands at the crossroads of economic development with a large expanding pool of adolescent population who can become contributing members of the society, investment in their education and health is critical. Sharma and Verma, in the second article have focused on the problems of street girls and their fight for survival in the context of developing countries The authors analyze the pathways of risk and protection among the female street children. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data from the cities of New Delhi (India), Jakarta (Indonesia), Manila (Philippines), and Pretoria (South Africa) the authors capture the contextual environment and nuances of the daily experiences of the girls. The female street children were at maximum risk of being involved in antisocial activities with peers, are low on problem solving, and high on depression and mental health related problems. Unexpectedly the participants were high on community engagement, religiosity, and individual


attributes of self esteem, self efficacy, and resilience. Given the vulnerable position of the girl child on the streets, programs that directly address the well-being and health of the girl child, especially those who are street based, need to be urgently examined. Sharma Sen and Sharma document the results of a longitudinal study of the familial context of creative children. Using qualitative semi-structured interviews and naturalistic observations the dynamic nature of the relationships within the family setting was found to lead to the discovery of the child’s talent, and its nurturance. Detailed case profiles showed that these families were cohesive, with the members sharing a commonality of purposes. Parents actively fostered their children’s abilities by allocating resources and introducing the child to the domain and the field of creativity. being closely involved in the learning process; and expressing appreciation. The quality of cultural capital available to the child is very significant. It was also noted that children provided the motivational source for parenting. The nurturance of creativity demonstrated the synchronicity of purpose created by strong parental motivation to nurture their child’s potential, and the strong internal motivation of the child to persevere in the talent domain. The issue of creativity among adult musicians is explored in another paper by Upadhyay and Dalal. They examined aspects of creativity among masters of Hindustani music. Using in-depth interviews of vocalists and instrumentalists, they found the role of developmental factors, preferred settings for music practice (riāz), and salience of Guru. The relevance of cultural context in the cognitive domain has also been dealt with by researchers. Das, Mehta, Nakayama and Janzen report cognitive processes of children in India, Canada, and Japan. The study extended the validity of measures of Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, and Successive (PASS) processing. Results of average and low achieving school children in India were low on all processing measures. Among Canadian Native children, Simultaneous processing was stronger and Successive was poorer. The Japanese children yielded the same 4 PASS factor structures as in the American CAS. However, Indian children scored higher than American norm for Successive scale; only those Canadian Native children who were poor in reading performed poorly in Successive scale, and among the Japanese, Simultaneous processing was higher. Results implicate the influence of cultural context and school instructions. In an interesting study on schooling, Mishra and Dasen found that Sanskrit medium school children used more geocentric language and encoding than their Hindi medium counterparts. The effect of age was significant only for encoding, and not for language. Geocentric spatial cognition was associated with basic spatial cognitive ability. The results suggest that the use of the ability can be sharpened by its practice in everyday activities. The relationship between language and encoding was moderate, thereby suggesting that geocentric cognition is

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not a function of language alone, but also depends on the features of the immediate eco-cultural context of the children. Gideon has addressed the processes by which career choices are made. He argues for the need to attend to the unique cultural, social, and economic factors that shape career development in the Indian context. To this end he has proposed a cultural preparation process model as a framework for the development of a career psychology in the Indian context. Using the data from a survey, Gideon has discussed the occupational and career interests which are central to career guidance. He notes that parental approval and the attribution of prestige, influence the formation of occupational and career interests. He advocates creating a platform that may integrate the diverse factors shaping career development in the Indian context. Romantic relationships and its consequent developmental outcomes during emerging adulthood have been dealt by Gala and Kapadia. They used a mixed-method approach and found these relationships more satisfying than dissatisfying. A positive change in the quality of life, which included positive feelings of happiness and reducing negative states such as anger and sadness, were noted. Paradoxes and contradictions in relationship experiences and processes were also highlighted. In the discussions on development, the role of social institutions is diminishing and often gets marginalized. However, in traditional societies they continue to play a key role in regulating the life course, particularly in the less urbanized sections of society. In this context, the institution of marriage is very significant. It redefines the social space available to married women. Following the narrative approach Shubha has examined women’s lives in the specific setting of Mahanubhav healing temples in the State of Maharashtra. She has shown that possession can be a part of the tactics, adjustments and negotiations in everyday attempts to cope and survive, rather than resistance strategies. Such tactics and negotiations make unbearable situations more tolerable. In Maharashtra, married women are ‘permitted’ to maintain their ties with their natal families and are even provided ritual occasions to visit their natal homes from time to time. Thus, women who refer to the temple as their māher seek to access their privilege to go to the temple “just as” they would go to the natal home. The temple stay thus becomes a culturally mediated means of processing psychosocial stress in a socially sanctioned manner. The narratives illustrate that temple communities offer some sort of a “substitute kin group” that gradually comes to act as an alternate home. Thus, by making available to women alternative spaces and subject positions, possession and healing in the temples emerge as powerful expressions of women’s agency. The article by Bakshi and Thaly qualitatively explored the meaning of spirituality. They noted that being spiritual stood for transcending a particular religion and abstracting universalities across religions. Additional features included

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observing and experiencing unity between self and others, experiencing equanimity or inner peace, and being guided by the spirit of a religion rather than the letter. Some of the themes characterizing a spiritual person were counter-opposed to those characterizing a religious person; a few themes were qualitatively independent, and some were consonant. The authors propose for an inclusive conception of religiousness that may bridge the distance between spirituality and religiousness. The issue of personal growth has been attended to by Bhattacharya and Mehrotra. Their qualitative exploration of personal growth processes in young adulthood showed that individuals actively striving towards personal growth often endorsed incremental theory beliefs (considered their current self as mutable) which is not the case with people not working actively on their personal growth goals. The latter had salient fixed or entity theory beliefs (belief that their attributes could not be changed). Personal growth goals were congruent with possible selves and were seen as instrumental in helping individuals achieve their desired possible self, avoiding their feared self as well as functioning as a means of attaining other important life goals. Taken together the articles included in this issue of Psychological Studies furnish the ground for productive dialogue among scholars whose work is at the intersection of the cultural and the developmental. They present an array of exciting studies of developmental phenomena and offer insights into the lived experiences of adolescents and young adults.


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