Psychology 133G

CULTURE AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Tues,Thurs 9:30-10;45, Franz 1178

Sections on Mondays (see below)

Prof. Patricia Greenfield Graduate Teaching Assistants:

Office: 2279C Franz Hall Amber Ankowski: aankowski@ucla.edu

Tel: 310-825-7526 Mari Davies: marisian@ucla.edu

Ted Hutman: hutman@ucla.edu

Peer Teaching Assistants:

Elaine Inoue: elainej@ucla.edu

Jitka Sammartinova: jitkasam@ucla.edu

Kristen Hayashida: kris524@ucla.edu

Michael Graham: migraham@ucla.edu

Nanore Tavoukjian: ntavoukj@ucla.edu

Omid Kajbaf: okajbaf@ucla.edu

Puja Shah: pujashah@ucla.edu

Sophia Yuan: sophiasyuan@hotmail.com

Timothy Wang: timothyw@ucla.edu

Annie Le: annie52185@gmail.com

The instructor would like to encourage all students to come to see her personally. Therefore, she would like students to come to see her in office hours or to make appointments. For emergencies, she will be available by phone. She will not be available by e-mail. However, the teaching assistants will be.

Office hours:

Office hours:

Greenfield: Tues & Thur 11:00-12:00, 2279C FH

Ankowski: Mon 3:30-5:30 2344 D FH

Davies: Tues & Thurs 11:00-12:00, FH 1347

Hutman: Mon 10:00-12:00, FH 1347

The following will hold office hours in 2567A FH:

Inoue: Tues 11:00-12:00

Sammartinova: Thurs 12:30-1:30

Hayashida: Mon 9:50-10:50

Graham: Tues 1:00-2:00

Tavoukjian: Mon 3:00-4:00

Kajbaf: Mon, 4:00-5:00

Shah: Tues 11:00-12:00

Yuan: Thurs 11:00-12:00

Wong: Wed 1:30-2:30

(Everyone is also available by appointment.)

Overview

The way in which human beings are socialized, grow up, and develop is affected by and expresses their cultural environment. This course will explore this process through reading, lecture, film, discussion, and empirical study. The course will take a multidisciplinary approach to the subject; in addition to psychology, it will draw particularly upon anthropology

We have a theme, which I will call "the child development transition." This refers to the way that global demographic, technological, and cultural shifts are changing socialization and child development. The first part of the course is based on looking at these shifts over time; the reading for this part is a case study in historical change called Weaving Generations Together: Evolving Creativity in the Maya of Chiapas. The second part of the course is based on looking at these same processes when groups with different cultural backgrounds come into contact; the reading for this part of the course will be found in Cross-cultural roots of minority child development. The two halves will be tied together by an integrative theory of historical change and cross-cultural contact based on Tonnies’ sociological theory, from the end of the 19^th century, of two kinds of social environments, Gemeinschaft (community) and Gesellschaft (society).

Students, along with the instructor and teaching assistants, will have the opportunity to relate the class materials to their own experiences growing up as members of various ethnic or cultural groups.

Sections

These meetings will be used for class presentations and discussions of empirical projects, readings, and lecture/film material. There will be an opportunity to sign up for projects at the first section, Week 1.

Sections are on Mondays 1A 8:00-8:50 3435 FH Inoue

1B 9:00-9:50 3435 FH Hutman

1C 10:00-10:50 3435 FH Shah

1D 11:00-11:50 3435 FH Hutman

1E 12:00-12:50 3435 FH Wong

1F 1:00-1:50 3435 FH Sammartinova

1G 2:00-2:50 3435 FH Yuan

1H 3:00-3:50 3435 FH Graham

1I 4:00-4:50 3435 FH Davies

IJ 5:00-5:50 3435 FH Davies

IK 9:00-9:50 2527 FH Hayashida

1L 1:00-1:50 2527 FH Ankowski

1M 2:00-2:50 2527 FH Ankowski

1N 3:00-3:50 2527 FH Kajbaf

1O 4:00-4:50 2527 FH Tavoukian

Readings for the class

1. Weaving Generations Together: Evolving Creativity in the Maya of Chiapas by P. M. Greenfield (Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press, 2004).

2. Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development, edited by P. M. Greenfield and R. R. Cocking (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1994.

Both books are on sale at the bookstore. For students who prefer not to purchase, both will be on reserve at Powell.

Requirements

1 in-class short answer midterm, 1 take-home final, 3 in-class exercises, 1 project presentation in section, and four questions for section are required. You may choose when you do the section assignments. You will sign up for the questions and presentation in the first class. You must sign up for one question assignment in the "change" part of the quarter and one in the "contact" part of the quarter. You may not sign up for a question in the same week you do a project.

Presentations: There will be one required project based on field research: Each field project will be based on issues from one or more of the lectures, films, and/or readings; in the write-up, data will be related to class material or readings. The schedule of project presentations is in the syllabus below. The projects will be presented in not more than 10 minutes. Because we want to have time for class discussion, there will be a grade penalty for presentations that are too long, (A short presentation is useful to your thinking as it forces you to figure out what your most important points and data are.) The presentation will include discussing results in relation to lecture, film, or readings. Grades will be based on the oral presentation. No written work will be handed in. This project and its presentation will be worth 50 points.

Questions/topics for discussion. In two sections where you do not do a presentation, you are to write two questions for discussion, one incorporating reading and one incorporating lecture/film for the week. These are to be placed in a folder for your section to be found in front of Dr. Greenfield’s office (2279C FH) by 7:00 AM on Monday morning before your section meets. (Please type questions on a computer and keep the electronic file for yourself.) For each section, the TA will select questions that he/she feels will contribute most to the class as a whole for discussion that day. When you write your question, think about its value to the class as a whole as well as to yourself. Each question will be worth 4 points, totaling 8 per assignment or 16 for both assignments together.

Midterm: The midterm will be an in-class short-answer test (no multiple choice) testing your knowledge of the most important concepts and facts in the first part of the course. It will be worth 50 points. There will be a possibility of 4 extra-credit points for answering questions on the two chapters of Weaving Generations Together (Chapters 2 and 6) that are not required reading.

Take-home Essay Final. This will be a take-home exam that will integrate the whole course, including lecture, film, and section. It will be given out in the last lecture and will be due Tuesday the following week. Note: In order to be able to do this, you will have to keep up with the reading as the quarter progresses. This will be worth 60 points. The essay, worth 60 points, must be turned in at 3 p. m. on Dec. 12 in the classroom.

Section attendance: Attendance will be taken and will be used as our participation measure. You will receive 1 point for each section attended, with a maximum of 8 points. This means that you can miss one section with impunity. There will be no discussion of reasons for missing a section. If you know in advance that you will miss a section, please talk to your TA to make appropriate arrangements. (However, note that both tests will test you on section material, so you are likely to lose way more points if you do not attend diligently.)

In-class exercises: There will be three of these. They will not be announced in advance. Two of the questions will be worth five points each and one will be worth 6, for a total of 16 points.

Final Grades

In order to maximize learning and enjoyment and minimize competition, a straight scale, which follows, will be used. Incompletes must be arranged in advance with the instructor and are based on having already completed the majority of the work for the class.

Total possible points = 200

A+ 97-100% 194-200

A 93-96% 186-193 C 73-76% 146-153

A- 90-92% 180-185 C- 70-72% 140-145

B+ 87-89% 174-179 D+ 67-69% 134-139

B 83-86% 166-173 D 63-66% 126-133

B- 80-82% 160-165 D- 60-62% 120-125

C+ 77-79% 154-159 F below 60% below 120

Topics and Readings

WG = Weaving Generations Together: Evolving Creativity in the Maya of Chiapa

CCR = Cross-Cultural Roots of Minority Child Development

Week 0 Introduction

Thur 9/28 Introduction to Psych 133G, culture and human development

Reading: Preface, WG

Week 1

Mon 10/2 No Section: Jewish High Holy Day

Tues 10/3 What is culture? What is development?

Thurs 10/5 What is culture? What is development? (continued)

Reading: Chapter 1, WG

Part I. The Child Development Transition: Historical Change

Week 2

Mon 10/9 Section: Organizational meeting

Tues 10/10 The dynamics of social change and cross-cultural value conflict: A framework

Thurs 10/12 Infant care and development: Historical change in Germany and Zinacantan

Reading: Chapter 3, 4 WG (Chapter 2 is optional and will be the topic of an extra-credit question on the midterm exam.)

Week 3

Mon 10/16 Section: Sleeping arrangements project will be presented:

Interview two generations, a mother and a grandmother (your own if possible) about the sleeping arrangements they had for their infants up to two or three years of age. Same room? different room? same bed? different bed? What were their reasons for these arrangements? How did these arrangements change in the first two years? Find out where each mother and baby was born (country of birth, rural or urban) as well as the educational level of each mother. Were there any differences between the two generations? What were they? Relate your findings to the first two lectures, especially last Thursday's. Also, as part of your conclusion, state what you think you would do with your children concerning sleeping arrangements and why

Tues. 10/17 From interpersonal to electronic communication

Thurs 10/19 Cognitive development: Historical change in Papua New Guinea

Reading: Chapter 5, Coda WG (Chapter 6 is optional and will be the topic of an extra-credit question on the midterm exam.)

Week 4

Mon 10/23 Technology project will be presented.

Each member of your team: Again try to interview a three-generation family (one member from each generation). Try to get a time budget of how much time each member spent interacting with others (family, friends) and using media as they were growing up. (The youngest member could be a child or teenager now.) Get the same demographic information as in the other projects. Ask the members of the two older generations how they think the way young people spend their time has changed. Discuss your findings in relation to the technology lecture

Tues 10/24 Activity and obesity in global perspective: The nutrition transition around the world

Thurs 10/26 Midterm exam

Week 5

Mon 10/30 Activity and food project presentation.

Each member of your team: Again try to get a three generational family and get the same demographic information. Find out how much time was spent in physical activity vs. sedentary activity as each was growing up (one could be a child now). What are the changes over time? Ask members of the two older generations what were the changes in foods and eating habits that they observed between themselves and younger generation. Relate your group findings to the lecture on activity and obesity in global perspective.

Part II. The Child Development Transition: Culture Contact

Tues 10/31 Bridging cultures with infants and toddlers

Thur. 11/2 Gender roles: Culture contact and intergenerational change in a Mexican-American family

Reading: CCR: Chapters 2 (Maternal behavior in a Mexican community by Tapia Uribe, LeVine, & LeVine), 3 (Socializing young children in Mexican-American families by Delgado-Gaitan),

Week 6

Mon 11/6 Gender roles project will be presented. Interview one female and one male members of each generation of a three generation family (if you have one or two missing categories, that is okay.) Ask each what his or her concept of male and female roles was growing up. Ask if they have seen any change over time. Where relevant, ask how her gender role conceptions differ from her mother and/or daughter. Get the same demographic information as for the sleeping arrangements project. Relate your findings to the film La Familia.

Tues 11/7 Cross-cultural value conflict between Latino immigrant families and the schools: The process of acculturation

Thur. 11/9 Developmental pathways of immigrant children; The Bridging Cultures Project

Reading: CCR: Chapter 6 (From natal culture to school culture to dominant society culture: Supporting transitions for Pueblo Indian students, by J. Suina). One chapter from CCR of your choice (that is, not assigned elsewhere on the syllabus).

Week 7

Mon 11/13 Acculturation project presentation

Each member of your team: Interview an immigrant mother and her school-age child or children. Get the same demographic information as before for both the mother and children. Give each individually the scenarios that were presented in the two lectures (copies will be made available). Compare the responses to the results presented in the two lectures. Why do you think your patterns were the same (if they were)? Why do you think your patterns were different (if they were)?

Tues 11/14 Bridging cultures with parents

Thur 11/16 Adolescence across cultures: Conflicts potential and real

Reading CCR: Chapter 12 (Mother and child in Japanese socialization by T. Lebra). One chapter from CCR of your choice (that is, not assigned elsewhere on the syllabus).

Week 8

Mon 11/20 Presentation on adolescence in immigrant families

Each member of your team: Interview an adolescent with immigrant parents, or write your own memoir. What are the most difficult conflicts with parents? What is it hardest for parents to understand about teenage life in the United States? What are the barriers to intergenerational communication? Relate your autobiographical or biographical data to the lecture entitled “adolescence across cultures” and to the Lebra chapter.

Tues. 11/21 Cross-cultural value conflict and harmony on multiethnic high school sports teams

Thur. 11/23 Thanksgiving

Reading CCR: Ch. 14, Cognitive Socializaiton in Confucian Heritage Cultures by David Ho

Week 9

Mon 11/27 Presentation on value differences and similarities in cross-ethnic relationships

Interview partners in a cross-ethnic relationship: These relationships should cross the individualism-collectivism line – e.g. Euro-Histpanic, Black–Asian. (African, West Indian, and Armenian are examples of other collectivistic groups.) Ask each member of the couple what they would like to transmit of their own culture when they have children and what they would like to transmit of the other partner’s culture. Ask each member of the couple what they hope NOT to transmit from their own culture and what they hope NOT to transmit from the culture of their partner. Are there any important conflicts between the two partners? What do these stem from? Relate your findings to the lecture on cross-cultural value conflict and harmony on multiethnic high school sports teams and to any readings that you find applicable.

Tues 11/28 Going back II

Thurs 11/30 Going back II (continued)

Reading CCR: Ch 11, Individualism, Collectivism, and Child Development by Uichol Kim and Soo-Hyung Choi

Week 10

Mon 11/27 Presentation on going back project. Each member of the team: Interview an immigrant who has gone back after living in the United States for a number of years to his or her country of origin. What was it like? Were there any adjustment problems because of having changed while living in the United States? If so, what were they? Was the country different in any way from how it was remembered? If so, how? Relate your group findings to the films Made in China and Daughter of Danang and, where possible, to Chapter 11.

Tues. 11/28 Theoretical synthesis

Thurs. 11/30 Give out take-home exam and discuss in class

Exam week

Tues, 12/12 Final exam due, 3 pm, in the classroom