1st Edition
Family and Human Development Across Cultures A View From the Other Side
The culmination of 15 years of research by a Turkish psychologist who was educated in the West, this volume examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of cross-cultural psychology. It takes a contextual-developmental-functional approach linking the child, family, and society as they are embedded in culture. A refreshingly different view, the author presents a portrait of human development from "the other side"--from the perspective of the "majority world." In a world seemingly dominated by American psychology, she proposes the cross-cultural orientation as a corrective to the culture-boundedness of much of Euro-American psychology.
Analyzing human development in context while avoiding the pitfalls of extreme relativism, this work studies development with an inclusive, holistic, and ecological perspective, focusing on the development of the self and of competence. In so doing, it also attempts to combine cultural contextualism with universalistic standards and psychological processes. It proposes a theory of family change which challenges some commonly held modernization assumptions, and links theory and application while examining the role of psychology in inducing social change.
Biography
Cigdem Kagitibasi, Koc University.
"This important book is relevant for understanding any intervention which explicitly or implicitly seeks to change parenting practice, and to inform debate about the desirability of such change.
—The Parenting Forum"...a splendored tapestry of a book, weaving together, among other things, a critique of Western individualism and discussion of intervention to aid non-Western poor, including her own work on mother empowerment in Istanbul."
—Contemporary Psychology"...an extraordinary and very ambitious undertaking that goes far beyond the main title's suggestion...a very valuable contribution to many ongoing discussions in the interdisciplinary field of cultural research."
—International Journal of Behavioral Development"Kagitçibasi writes in a style which includes reference to personal experiences in Euro-American settings during her own education and psychological practice, which brings to immediate life the realities of culture-based models of normative behaviour. This increases the accessibility of her wide-ranging text as she weaves her themes of contextual-developmental-functional thinking of children, families and communities embedded in cultural contexts....In seeking a model to understanding the systematic relationships between individuals and communities, community psychologists might productively explore the outer layers of the Russian doll set within which psychology is itself systematically nested. Kagitçibasi's text unpacks some of those layers and illustrates some of the implications for practice."
—Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology
