Читать книгу The Handbook of Solitude - Группа авторов - Страница 79

Culture has been defined as the man‐made part of the environment, the shared lifestyle of a group of people, the beliefs and values in a society concerning how individuals should behave, the meaning system that individuals use to understand the world, or other phenomena (Cole & Cagigas, 2010; Oyserman, 2017). Among the definitions, many researchers seem to prefer the one focusing on beliefs and values that are commonly endorsed in the society (Hofstede, 1994). This definition allows for interpretations of differences and similarities in behaviors, such as social withdrawal, across societies in terms of the potential role of culture. However, the notion of sharing of culture among people within a society or community creates conceptual and methodological challenges for developmental researchers who are interested in understanding and examining how culture is involved in individual‐level socialization processes (e.g., associations between specific socialization practices and social withdrawal) or developmental processes (e.g., contributions of social withdrawal to internalizing problems or other developmental outcomes); it is difficult to establish logical and empirical links between the collective endorsement of cultural beliefs and values by a group and behaviors or developmental patterns that are displayed by individuals. For example, although research shows that Asian parents are more likely than European American parents to endorse power‐assertive, authoritarian parenting (Chao, 1994; Steinberg et al., 1992) and that Asian children may display higher level of shyness than European American children (e.g., Chen & Tse, 2010; Rubin et al., 2006), the relations among cultural values, authoritarian parenting, and children’s shyness are not clear (e.g., Chen, Dong et al., 1997; Chen et al., 1998).

As an approach to address the issue of the “sharing” aspect of culture, researchers may treat it as an individual‐level construct (Triandis, 1995), assuming that personal characteristics and experiences of each individual affect his or her reactions to the influence of external cultural factors. Using this approach, researchers may measure culture by observing individual responses to culturally related questions in self‐report questionnaires or to tasks that are used to activate a particular cultural mindset or experience (Oyserman, 2017; Singelis, 1994). The data allow for direct analysis of relations between cultural variables and child behaviors, interactions between cultural variables and socialization variables in predicting child behaviors, and interactions between cultural variables and child behaviors in predicting developmental outcomes.

The conceptualization of culture as an individual construct and the corresponding research approach, however, may not be consistent with the tradition of developmental research that views culture as a context for socialization and human development (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006; Whiting & Edwards, 1988). Moreover, it is unclear to what extent cultural context is reflected by an individual cultural trait because individual reactions to specific tasks used to activate a cultural mindset or self‐reports on a questionnaire of culture are likely to be confounded with other personal characteristics and experiences. It is difficult to distinguish individual cultural and noncultural reactions or traits (e.g., collectivism vs. sociability; individualism vs. autonomy or assertiveness).

Studies of the acculturation of migrants or immigrants in the new environment and the effects of societal changes on individual behaviors may provide valuable information about how cultural experiences (e.g., accommodation to the new values, integration of diverse values, Berry, 1997) play a role in human development. Chen and Li (2012), for example, examined parenting attitudes and child behaviors during urbanization in China. The results showed that parents in urbanized families (families that changed the status from rural to urban residency) were more likely than parents in nonurbanized rural families to encourage sociability and assertiveness in child‐rearing (e.g., “I encourage my child to express his or her opinions in school and other public places.”). Moreover, urban cultural values promoted children's sociable‐assertive behavior through parental socialization effort.

Research on culture and social withdrawal has focused mainly on: (1) the display of socially withdrawn behavior among children with different cultural backgrounds; and (2) adults’ and children’s perceptions or views of socially withdrawn behaviors. Researchers have conducted a number of studies comparing children on the display of withdrawn behaviors using observations, self‐reports, and other methods (e.g., Bowker & Raja, 2011; Xu & Farver, 2009). For example, Farver et al. (1995) observed children’s play behaviors in preschool settings and found that Korean American children engaged more in parallel and unoccupied play than European American children (see also Coplan, Ooi, & Hipson, Chapter 8). Chen et al. (1998) and Rubin et al. (2006) reported that toddlers in China and Korea displayed higher levels of behavioral inhibition than their counterparts in Australia, Canada, and Italy. In addition, numerous studies using self‐reports and peer‐nominations found similar patterns between East‐Asian children and Western children in shyness and related behaviors (e.g., Chen & Tse, 2008; Gartstein et al., 2006). Compared with self‐reports, peer evaluations may provide more objective information about children’s behaviors. However, this method often does not allow for cross‐cultural comparisons on group means because the scores are typically standardized within the group.

Findings from research on the display of withdrawn behaviors among children in different cultural groups help us recognize the role of culture in the development of social withdrawal. However, there is a concern about the potential misinterpretation of the cross‐cultural similarities and differences because the behaviors that children display in different cultures may not have the same meanings. Therefore, an important task is to investigate the meanings of withdrawn behaviors of children in different cultures.

Researchers have explored cultural meanings of children’s withdrawn behaviors in Australia, Canada, China, Korea, South Africa, the United States, and several other countries (e.g., Ding et al., 2015; Rubin et al., 1999; van Zyl et al., 2018). A common strategy to examine cultural meanings of withdrawn behaviors is to assess individual reactions to hypothetical vignettes describing withdrawn behaviors. Heinrichs et al. (2006), for example, showed undergraduate students several vignettes related to social withdrawal and asked them to make judgments about the demonstrated behaviors in the vignettes. Consistent with the hypothesis, participants in group‐oriented societies (Japan, Korea, and Spain) viewed withdrawn behaviors more acceptable than their counterparts in individualistic societies (Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States). Using a similar method, Schreier et al. (2010) found that youth in Latin America (Costa Rica and Ecuador) and East Asia rated withdrawn behaviors as more desirable than youth in the West. Bowker and colleagues (2016) studied Nigerian emerging adults’ perceptions of shy and unsociable behaviors through using vignettes. The participants did not show different attitudes toward sociable and withdrawn behaviors. Moreover, the participants viewed sociable behavior as having a greater negative social impact (e.g., students who act like this cause a problem in class) than shy and unsociable behaviors. The results may indicate a culturally unique understanding of sociable and withdrawn behaviors in Nigerian youth.

Rapee and colleagues (2011) asked participants to report their expected impact of withdrawn behaviors on the person’s social status and career. The participants rated how the person who displayed shy or outgoing behavior in the vignette would be liked among peers and how the behavior described in the vignette would affect the character's future career (future career options, success in future career, future relationships with colleagues and bosses). It was found that whereas youth in Western countries viewed shy behavior as clearly less desirable than outgoing behavior, youth in East Asia viewed them as less different.

Research on individual views and beliefs about social withdrawal using self‐reports provides useful information about its cultural meanings. However, self‐report methods suffer from widely recognized limitations, such as biases in self‐reports due to social desirability effects (e.g., people in hierarchically structured societies seem to display greater social desirability concerns than in egalitarian individualistic societies) and group‐reference effects (e.g., people in different cultural groups may use different referents in their self‐reports) (see Schneider et al., 2006; van de Vijver, 2015). Moreover, culture is believed to represent the belief and value system that is reflected at multiple institutional, group, and personal levels (e.g., Super & Harkness, 1986). Individual self‐reported views may not adequately and effectively capture cultural meanings beyond the personal level.