Joscha Kärtner

Individualism-collectivism as Descriptive Norms Development of a Subjective Norm Approach to Culture Measurement

The development and validation of a new instrument for measuring the descriptive norms related to individualism-collectivism (IC) is presented. IC is conceptualized as a group- specific unidimensional cultural construct with four defining attributes (Triandis, 1995). Three studies are reported showing the dimensionality and validities at individual and cultural levels across samples from 11 cultures. The new instrument has good statistical properties with iden- tical structures at the individual and cultural level, good reliabilities at the individual level, adequate agreement within cultures, and demonstrates first signs of convergent and discriminant validity. Correlations at the cultural level also indicate that the measure has the potential to add to research by integrating previously untapped attributes of IC. Finally, normative IC explains variance in self-reported behavior over and above self-referenced IC. Implications and opportunities for norm-oriented research and scale refinement are discussed.

Concern for Generativity and Its Relation to Implicit Pro‐Social Power Motivation, Generative Goals, and Satisfaction With Life: A Cross‐Cultural Investigation

So far, cross-cultural research on generativity has been lacking. The present study tests the cross-cultural applicability of an integrative model of generativity proposed by McAdams and de St. Aubin. Measures of implicit pro-social power motivation, a general disposition for generativity, generative goals, and life satisfaction were administered to adults in Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Germany. These measures cover the intrapersonal part of the generativity model. After examining the comparability of the measures across the three cultures, cultural differences in the level of each variable were inspected. Finally, the hypothesized model was tested via structural equation modeling. Results show that the model can be successfully applied in all three cultural samples. This finding has interesting implications for the further investigation of generativity, particularly its social antecedents and behavioral consequences.

Parenting styles and the development of the categorical self: A longitudinal study on mirror self-recognition in Cameroonian Nso and German families

This prospective study contributes to the understanding of the development of self-conceptions in cultural context. We examined the influence of maternal contingent responsiveness towards their 3-month-old infants on toddlers’ self-recognition at the age of 18 to 20 months. We contrasted two samples that can be expected to differ with respect to contingent responsiveness as a parenting style: German middle-class families and Cameroonian Nso farmers. As hypothesized, German mothers reacted more contingently than Nso mothers. Furthermore, German toddlers recognized themselves more often than Nso toddlers. Finally, we found that the level of contingent responsiveness was one of the mechanisms that accounted for mirror self-recognition. The results are discussed with respect to different cultural emphases on parenting strategies.

The persistent sampling bias in developmental psychology: A call to action

Psychology must confront the bias in its broad literature toward the study of participants developing in environments unrepresentative of the vast majority of the worlds population. Here, we focus on the implications of addressing this challenge, highlight the need to address overreliance on a narrow participant pool, and emphasize the value and necessity of conducting research with diverse populations. We show that high-impact-factor developmental journals are heavily skewed toward publishing articles with data from WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) populations. Most critically, despite calls for change and supposed widespread awareness of this problem, there is a habitual dependence on convenience sampling and little evidence that the discipline is making any meaningful movement toward drawing from diverse samples. Failure to confront the possibility that culturally specific findings are being misattributed as universal traits has broad implications for the construction of scientifically defensible theories and for the reliable public dissemination of study findings.

Similarities and differences in contingency experiences of 3-month-olds across sociocultural contexts.

In this study we analyzed similarities and differences in the contingency experiences of 159 three-month-olds from 6 sociocultural contexts. Across contexts, caretakers responded with similar overall contingency levels, vocalizations provided the dominant response as well as the most salient signal, and there was a relative signal-response correspondence. With two exceptions, infants in all samples most often got responses addressing their sense of hearing, followed by the sense of touch and then sight. In response to nondistress vocalizations, infants from independent contexts (Berlin, Los Angeles) experienced more contingent responses addressing their sense of sight than infants from autonomous-related (Beijing, Delhi, urban Nso from Cameroon) or interdependent contexts (rural Nso). Rural Nso infants experienced more contingent responses addressing their sense of touch than infants from all other but the Los Angeles sample. These results support the interpretation of contingent responsiveness as a part of the intuitive parenting program that manifests differentially depending on culture-specific emphases on distal and proximal caretaking.

Is Self-Determined Functioning a Universal Prerequisite for Motive-Goal Congruence? Examining the Domain of Achievement in Three Cultures

Research has shown that capacity for accessing implicit motives promotes congruence between the implicit and the explicit motivational system: Individuals able to test a conscious goal for its fit with their implicit motivation commit themselves more fully to self-congruent goals. However, it has not yet been shown whether this is a universal phenomenon or limited to Euro-American cultures in which individual needs are less strictly constrained by the social environment than in other cultural contexts. Thus, the present study examined whether self-determination interacts with the implicit achievement motive to predict how much importance individuals from Cameroon, Germany, and Hong Kong ascribe to achievement goals. Moreover, the importance ascribed to goals should indirectly predict life satisfaction via success in goal realization. Results showed that the associations described above are valid in all three cultural groups and are discussed in terms of their implications for the universal processes characterizing motivation.

A cross-cultural comparison of the development of the social smile A longitudinal study of maternal and infant imitation in 6- and 12-week-old infants

Social smiling is universally regarded as being an infants first facial expression of pleasure. Underlying co-constructivist emotion theories are the assumptions that the emergence of social smiling is bound to experiences of face-to-face interactions with caregivers and the impact of two developmental mechanisms--maternal and infant imitation. We analyzed mother-infant interactions from two different socio-cultural contexts and hypothesized that cross-cultural differences in face-to-face interactions determine the occurrence of both of these mechanisms and of the frequency of social smiling by 12-week-old infants. Twenty mother-infant dyads from a socio-cultural community with many face-to-face interactions (German families, Münster) were compared with 24 mother-infant dyads from a socio-cultural community with few such interactions (rural Nso families, Cameroon) when the infants were aged 6 and 12 weeks. When infants were 6 weeks old, mothers and their infants from both cultural communities smiled at each other for similar (albeit very short) amounts of time and used imitated each others smiling similarly rarely. In contrast, when infants were 12 weeks old, mothers and their infants from Münster smiled at and imitated each other more often than did Nso mothers and their infants.

Self‐regulation and well‐being: The influence of identity and motives

The relationship between self–regulatory capacities and self–esteem as well as well–being is examined by a mediation model that views self–regulation as promoting the development of identity achievement which, in turn, is expected to be associated with well–being. Among secondary school students (Study 1) identity achievement mediated the association between the self–regulatory capacity of attention control and self–esteem. In Study 2 (university students), the mediational effect of identity achievement was found for the relationship between the self–regulatory capacity of action control and well–being. Explicit motives moderated this association. In sum, a firm identity enhances well–being by lending a sense of continuity to ones life. However, explicit motives have a substitution effect by giving direction to life when lacking firm identity commitments. Copyright

Socio-cultural Aspects of Identity Formation: The Relationship between Commitment and Well-Being in Student Samples from Cameroon and Germany

This article examines the relationship between ego identity formation (commitment statuses) and subjective well-being among student samples from Cameroon and Germany. The Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status was administered to Cameroonian and German participants. Additionally, data on life satisfaction and mood states were collected. Firstly, the equivalence of measurements across cultural groups was examined. Subsequent analyses revealed that well-being was positively related to the level of identity achievement among participants from both cultural groups. In contrast, well-being did not show a positive association with commitments to goals and values that were adopted from significant others (Foreclosure). Gender did not moderate the relationship between well-being and identity statuses. Findings are discussed with respect to personal and socio-cultural aspects of identity development.

Early Reminiscing in Cultural Contexts: Cultural Models, Maternal Reminiscing Styles, and Children's Memories

The present study examined conversations of 164 mothers from seven different cultural contexts when reminiscing with their 3-year-old children. We chose samples based on their sociodemographic profiles, which represented three different cultural models: (1) autonomy (urban middle-class families from Western societies), (2) relatedness (rural farming families from non-Western societies), and (3) autonomy-relatedness (urban middle-class families from non-Western societies). The results showed that mothers from the autonomous contexts predominantly adopted an elaborative-evaluative reminiscing style (variable-oriented approach) and pattern (person-oriented approach). Mothers from the relational contexts mainly adopted a repetitive reminiscing style and pattern. There was greater heterogeneity for style variables among mothers from autonomous-relational contexts; in addition, the person-oriented approach revealed that the majority of mothers from autonomous-relational contexts showed hybrid style patterns. Thus, the cultural models, and their respective orientations towards autonomy and relatedness, were reflected in the way mothers reminisced with their children. The childrens provision of memory elaborations was high in the autonomous contexts, low in the relational contexts, and moderate in the autonomous-relational contexts. Across contexts, maternal evaluations prompted children to contribute memory elaborations. Maternal elaborations were an additional predictor for childrens memory, but only for families from the relational cultural model.