The Role of Cultural Beliefs in Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

Cultural Beliefs and Socialization - Defining Cultural Beliefs - Usually rooted in a culture’s symbolic inheritance - Includes beliefs about the meaning of life - May include religious, political, familial, or communal beliefs - Cultural belief systems include roles - Gender - Age-related - Social status or class - The process and outcomes of socialization - Beliefs about standards for raising children - Three outcomes are shared by all cultures - Self-regulation - Role preparation - Sources of meaning - Adolescence and emerging adulthood encompass all these socialization outcomes - Cultural Values: Individualism and Collectivism - Cultures place value on independence and self-expression or obedience and conformity - Collectivist cultures - Promote development of an interdependent self - Individualistic cultures - Promote the development of an independent self - Broad and narrow socialization - Refer to the range of individual differences cultures allow or encourage - Broad socialization favors individualism - Narrow socialization favors collectivism - Sources of socialization - Family - Peers and friends - School - Community - Workplace - Media - Legal system - Cultural belief system - An example of socialization for cultural beliefs - The Aborigines of Australia - The law - Three public ceremonies, each representing a stage in the initiation of Adolescent boys to manhood - Followed by an extended period of seclusion - Cultural beliefs are collectivistic - Has been affected by globalization - Socialization for cultural beliefs in the west - Middletown studies - Life in a typical American community - Two studies done 50 years apart - Found the child-rearing beliefs of the American majority culture changed Dramatically over the 20th century - Narrow socialization decreased, broad socialization increased Cultural Beliefs in Adolescence - Cultural beliefs and the custom complex - Every aspect of development is influenced by the cultural context in which it takes Place, and every pattern of behavior reflects something about cultural beliefs. - Custom complex - A typical practice in a culture and the cultural beliefs that provide the basis For that practice - Cultural beliefs in multicultural societies - Cultural beliefs of American minority cultures tend to be less individualistic and More collectivistic than those of the majority culture - This is also the case in other western countries - Creates a contradictory socialization environment Religious Beliefs - Virtually all cultures have religious beliefs - Typically contain prescriptions for socialization related to the three main outcomes: Self-regulation, role preparation, and sources of meaning - Religiosity in Adolescence - Adolescents and emerging adults in developed countries tend to be less religious Then those in traditional cultures - Secular countries – Japan and Europe - American are more religious than most developed countries - Moralistic therapeutic deism - Influenced by parents’ religiosity and ethnicity - Religious involvement is related to several positive outcomes - Worldwide, religious development involves the community - Islam - During Ramadan, pre-pubertal Muslims may choose to fast or not - After puberty, religious practices among Muslims become less open To individual choice and more guided by social pressures - The decline of religiosity in emerging adulthood - Religious participation and beliefs decline throughout teens and are lower In the late teens and early twenties than at any other period - Standard religious doctrine not accepted - Religious faith associated with positive characteristics - Religiosity has declined with each successive generation Cultural Beliefs and Moral Development - Kohlberg’s theory - Moral development is based on cognitive development - Stages of moral reasoning tended to increase with age - Study participants did not skip stages - Moral development was cumulative - Moral development was correlated with socioeconomic status, intelligence, And educational level - Gilligan criticized the lack of females in Kohlberg’s research - Evidence has not supported her theory of bias - The cultural critique of Kohlberg - Schweder - Kohlberg’s coding system is biased toward western values - Secular bias - Children learn moral beliefs specific to their culture - The worldviews approach to moral development - Jensen - The ultimate basis of morality is a person’s worldview - Worldviews provide the basis for moral reasoning - The outcome of moral reasoning is moral evaluations, which prescribe moral Behaviors - Moral behaviors reinforce worldviews - Three types of ethics based on worldviews - The ethic of autonomy - The ethic of community - The ethic of divinity - The use of these three ethics varies by culture - The trajectories for the three ethics are considered templates Political Beliefs - Cognitive changes and political beliefs - Adelson - Studied political development in adolescents - The only variable found to be related to political thinking was age - Three key changes in cognitive mode - The development of formal operations - Decline in authoritarian political views - Capacity to develop ideology - Theory has not bee applied to diverse cultures