Child and Family Development: Difference between Race and Culture - Case Study Example

CHILD AND FAMILY DEVELOPMENT: THE DIFFERENCE RACE & CULTURE MAKE 2007 Child and Family Development: The Difference Race & Culture Make Introduction Explaining the logic and hidden factors underlying the process human development is one the most intriguing and sophisticated tasks of psychological research. Numbers of outstanding thinkers have repeatedly attempted to identify the basic developmental principles universal for all human beings, and the quest continues up to now. However, the most obvious outcome of the efforts is the fact that the process of human development is overwhelmingly complex, and there are only few areas that can be understood with an acceptable degree of accuracy. Therefore, each perspective that had been praised to discover the basic psychological mechanism of human development was subsequently found to have serious limitations and replaced by other theories, which in their turn proved limited too. The earlier perspectives attempted to reveal a universal set of principles/mechanisms underlying the process of human development. However, this goal was not achieved through comprehensive research of all psychological issues related to human development. Instead, founders and representatives of each approach tended to build a comprehensive account of human development on the basis of some specific set of psychological phenomena. Thus, the psychoanalytic approach focused almost exclusively on the interaction between conscious and unconscious drives which they believed determined human development and behavior; by contrast, representatives of the behaviorist perspective neglected inner mental events in favor of visible behavioral reactions accumulation of which played the key role in shaping human personality; cognitive researchers paid attention to the cognitive mechanisms perceiving them as the major determinants of human development; the humanist perspective emphasized the importance of motivational aspects. Such specific approach resulted in emergence of several broad approaches the theoretical value of which could hardly be questioned. However, this broadness was not the result of comprehensive empirical research in the field: lack of adequate methods to explore many hidden aspects of human psychology, coupled with excessive emphasis being placed on a particular set of phenomena were the major contributing factors. Therefore, the practical value of the traditional perspectives in explaining each particular case is often limited due to their failure to properly consider the huge variety of unique individual factors that affect the process of human development. This essential practical limitation leads to a reasonable assumption that it may not be reasonable to apply only broad based, universal developmental standards to all people without considering the individual variations, in particular such as race, ethnicity and culture which have important implications on the process of human development. Main Body A number of important variations are based on racial, ethnical, and cultural background of individuals (Gibbs & Huang, 1998). The outburst of scholarly interest toward the diverse influence of race, ethnicity and culture on psychological development of children can be traced back to the late 1980s - early 1990s when several attempts were made to design a special framework to consider this group of factors (McLoyd, 1991; Graham, 1992; Gibbs & Huang, 1998). Since the differences between members of various racial, ethnic and cultural groups had been well documented before (Dornbusch et al, 1991), the researchers focused on discovering the mechanisms and mediators that might contribute to the phenomenon. Consequently, the experiences of racial discrimination and the specific race, ethnicity, and culture related processes such as stereotyping, ethnic socialization and identity emerged as the primary determinants of development in minority children. Although each of these factors received a fair share of scholarly attention within the realm of social psychology, little was known on their specific influence on the process of human development. In fact, despite their broadness none of the traditional theories could fully consider this group of factors. According the psychoanalytical theory of Freud, a child goes through a series of psychosexual stages as he grows up. Each stage is dominated by the development of sensitivity in a particular erogenous or pleasure-giving zone of the body. Freud identifies five stages of psychosexual development: the oral, anal, phallic, latent and genital. Each stage involves a unique conflict a child must cope with before passing over to the next stage of development. In case the conflict is not resolved it typically results in continuous frustration and mental discomfort which eventually becomes chronic and shapes the child's behavior. Unless the conflict is properly resolved further development will not occur normally. According to the psychoanalytic theory actual behavior of a child is only the tip of the iceberg while the core determinants are hidden in the deep waters of unconscious (Bateman & Holmes, 1995). Consequently, the major task of the professional whom attempts to positively affect the child's behavior is to make the repressed unconscious conflicts conscious. Once the conflict enters the realm of conscious the child is empowered to effectively understand and deal with it. Although Freud was the first who stressed the role unconscious as a determinant of human development, he largely lost himself in finding sexual reason of any human's action simultaneously neglecting the importance of situational factors. Therefore, the main drawback of Freud's theory is that it is very contemplative: the researcher attempts to create a holistic theory of human development observing a limited number of his mentally ill patients. Even children or healthy people rarely fell in the scope of his research let alone any attempts to extend the psychoanalytic theory to cover the specifics of racial, ethnical and cultural differences. Contemporary research in the field of racial, ethnic and cultural factors suggests that this drawback of the psychoanalytic theory may be limiting the potential of psychoanalytic intervention strategies in representatives of minorities (Leary, 1997). The major task of the therapist whom provides a psychoanalytical therapy is to make repressed unconscious conflicts conscious. Once the conflict enters the realm of conscious the patient can start his attempts to deal with them. However, lack of knowledge in the field of factors related to race and ethnicity make this task very difficult. Thus, Leary (1997) provides abundant clinical materials in interracial treatment in which disclosures about race and ethnicity played an important role in improving the outcomes of psychoanalytical therapy. Consequently, Leary suggests that "'contemporary psychoanalytic formulations and multicultural perspectives from outside of psychoanalysis can together create more meaningful conceptualizations which take into account the lived realities of race and the ways in which these may be shaped by individual psychology" (Leary, 1997: 164). Unfortunately, incorporation of these formulations and perspectives in the psychoanalytical theory is largely pending: traditional excessively generalized approaches seem to dominate the psychoanalytical perspective up to date. Lawrence Kohlberg also contributed to studies of human development due to comprehensive research of moral development. He studied the development of moral reasoning - deciding what is right and what is wrong - by presenting children and adolescents with a set of moral dilemmas. Depending upon the age of respondents their answers differed substantially, which gave Kohlberg an opportunity to outline several stages of moral development (Kohlberg, 1971). However, Kohlberg almost entirely failed to consider the cultural and racial factors as well as the individual living conditions, social background, and other important environmental factors. This makes his model of human development highly controversial: for example, if one takes into consideration this set of social factors (including race, ethnicity, and culture) within the framework of Kohlberg's model, it will be evident that higher levels of moral development are not necessarily better for a person than lower ones, and visa versa (Gleitman, Friedlund, & Reisberg, 2000). Eric Erikson is a representative of Neo-Freudian paradigm and his ideas are generally based on works of his theoretical predecessors especially Sigmund and Anna Freud (Evans, 1969). However, it will be misleading to classify Erikson's theory as a typical psychoanalytical one: although the essence of Erikson's model is the social and emotional development of personality in ontogenesis, from birth till senility, he also pays much attention to social determinants of behavior such as upbringing in family and school, social life and interactions, etc. Erikson's life cycles model consists of eight phases that integrate growing and maturation of individual from birth till senility. Every of eight stages could have either positive or negative result and each stage determines the next one (Erikson, 1968). This model substantially broadens the usage of psychoanalytic theory: the researcher does not study an individual outside the social environment thus taking into consideration both psychological and social determinants of development (Sheehy, 1977). Identity formation is the core element of Erikson's model. This process depends upon numerous individual and social factors, such as gender, race, society, culture, or physical appearance. A combination of these factors forms behavioral patterns of an individual, determines the way of thinking, the self-esteem, etc. Components of human identity are not stable: they gradually transform being influenced by changes in social norms and values - this process is natural (Erikson, 1980). However, one may notice that Erikson's model lacks flexibility. Thus, being aware that it is impossible to describe the whole diversity of developmental patterns as well as various combinations of positive and negative properties within the framework of his model, Erikson confined himself to description of only two major outcomes of human development: normal and abnormal. Evidently, they are rarely met in the pure form while intermediate variants can be observed more frequently. This limitation is essential when applying Erikson's model to explain the peculiarities of racial, ethnic and cultural development. The distinct feature of cognitive approach is the perception of human development and behavior as the result of conscious information processing: people not simply receive information and react to it but also interpret it according to the prior experience. The basic principle of this approach is the assumption that a child assimilates certain facts/concepts from the environment and internalizes them according to his own cognitive structure. The cognitive perspective implies that development of cognitive mechanisms (such as memory, thinking, sensory abilities, etc) and language are the main tools of learning while learning plays the defining role in human development. Thus before the child can master a certain behavioral pattern he should master language that helps correctly perceive the world around him. Social determination of the process of learning (Vygotsky), emphasis on the internal processes of learning (Piaget), and the role of teachers in organization of learning process (Bruner) represent other important foci points that contribute to the distinction of the cognitive perspective. The core principle of Piaget is to perceive a child as a creature that assimilates things, selects and internalizes them according to his own cognitive structure. The main role in the process of cognition belongs to mental abilities of person. The second main concept in Piaget's human development theory is idea of construction. Unlike heritable transformation, construction abilities are not inborn and depend on person's actions. Piaget suggests the existence of four major stages of human development: the sensory-motor, pre-operational, concrete-operational, and formal-operational, during which children and adolescents master such skills as the ability to use symbols and to reason in abstract ways (Frager & Fadiman, 2000). In other words, according to the cognitive theory, the process of development can be explained only by exploring the child's cognitive system and identifying the cognitions responsible for a certain behavioral reaction and developmental phenomenon. This approach is perfectly illustrated by the cognitive therapy which effectively used to correct maladaptive behaviors such as substance abuse in children and adolescents. Cognitive therapy "is a system of psychotherapy that attempts to reduce excessive emotional reactions and self-defeating behavior by modifying the faulty or erroneous thinking and maladaptive beliefs that underlie these reactions" (Beck et al, 1993: 21). This therapy focuses on functional analysis of substance abuse and identification of cognitions associated with substance abuse. In cognitive therapy, the therapist's approach to focusing on cognitions is based on leading the child/adolescents through a series of questions, and the treatment is believed to reduce substance use by changing the patient's way of thinking. Conclusion The existing research in the field of racial and ethnic identity development demonstrates that these aspects of human development are increasingly considered by modern scholars. This should be perceived as an essential advantage as compared with the developmental theorists of the past whom largely failed to consider unique individual experiences of minorities in their models and theories. Although some did recognize the importance of social context in shaping the process of development (e.g. Erikson), excessive broadness of such models coupled with their rather theoretical than practical orientation contributed to their failure to address racial, ethnic and cultural factors. However, it may be misleading to believe that the traditional perspectives on human development are absolutely useless in modern research and clinical practice. On the contrary, these models have provided the necessary theoretical basis for modern scholars to design more practically applicable developmental models taking into consideration the effects of race, ethnicity, culture, and other unique individual factors. Thus, most developmental models and theories developed by contemporary researchers to describe the role of racial, ethnic and cultural factors rely on either the psychosocial model of Erikson or the cognitive research of Piaget (Chavez, & Guido-DiBrito, 2000). References Bateman, A. & Holmes, J. (1995). Introduction to Psychoanalysis: Contemporary Theory & Practice. London: Routledge. Beck, A. T., Wright, F. D., Newman, C. F., & Liese, B. S. (1993). Cognitive therapy of substance abuse. New York: Guilford Press. Dornbusch, S. M., Mont-Reynaud, R, Ritter, P. L., Chen, Z.-Y., & Steinberg, L. (1991). Stressful events and their correlates among adolescents of diverse backgrounds. In M. E. Colten & S. Gore (Eds.), Adolescent stress: Causes and consequences. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 111-130. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: Norton. Erikson, E. (1980). Identity and the Life Cycle. New York, W. Norton & Co. Evans R. (1969). Dialogue with Erik Erikson. New York: Button. Frager, R. & Fadiman, J. (2000). Personality and Personal Growth (4th edition). Longman Pub Group. Gibbs, J., & Huang, L. (1989). Children of color: Psychological interventions with minority youth. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Gleitman, H., Friedlund, A., & Reisberg, D. (2000). Basic Psychology. W.W. Norton and Co. Graham, S. (1992). "Most of the subjects were White and middle class'" Trends in published research on African Americans in selected APA journals, 1970-1980. American Psychologist, 47, 629-639. Kohlberg, L. (1971). Stages of Moral Development. In C.M.. Beck, B.S. Crittenden & E.V.Sullivan (Eds), Moral Education. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1971. Leary K. (1997). Race, self-disclosure, and "forbidden talk": race and ethnicity in contemporary clinical practice. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 66(2), 163-89. McLoyd, V.C. (1991). What is the study of African American children the study of': The conduct, publication, and changing nature of research on African American children. In R. Jones (Ed), Black Psychology Berkeley. CA: Cobb & Henry, 419-440. Chavez, A. F. & Guido-DiBrito, F. (2000). Racial and Ethnic Identity and Development. In: Clark, M. C. & Caffarella, R. S. (Eds), An Update on Adult Development Theory: New Ways of Thinking About the Life Course: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, No. 84. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, 39-48. Sheehy, G. (1977). Passages. New York: Basic Books. Read More