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Cultural influences on development are illustrated by the many ethnic communities that comprise most U.S. cities. What subcultures and neighborhoods can you identify in your community?

Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

We are embedded in culture, a set of customs, knowledge, attitudes, and values that are shared by members of a group and are learned early in life through interactions with group members (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Early studies of culture and human development took the form of cross-cultural research, comparing individuals and groups from different cultures to examine how these universal processes worked in different contexts (Mistry & Dutta, 2015).

Most classic theories and research on human development are based on Western samples, and developmental researchers once believed that the processes of human development were universal. Yet research that defines normative development based on Western samples can lead to narrow views of human development that do not take into account the variety of contexts in which people live. At the extreme, differences in human development within other cultural groups might be viewed as abnormal (Cole & Packer, 2015).

Developmental norms vary by cultural context (Schweder et al., 1998). Biology and culture are inseparable, and the cultural context in which individuals live influences the timing and expression of many aspects of development (Mistry, 2013). For example, the average age that infants begin to walk varies with cultural context. In Uganda, infants begin to walk at about 10 months of age, in France at about 15 months, and in the United States at about 12 months. These differences are influenced by parenting practices that vary by culture. African parents tend to handle infants in ways that stimulate walking, by playing games that allow infants to practice jumping and walking skills (Hopkins & Westra, 1989; Super, 1981).

There is a growing trend favoring cultural research, which examines how culture itself influences development, over cross-cultural research, which simply examines differences across cultures (Cole & Packer, 2015). Cultural research examines development and culture as fused entities that mutually interact, with culture inherent in all domains of development and a contributor to the context in which we are embedded, transmitting values, attitudes, and beliefs that shape our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors (Mistry & Dutta, 2015). The shift toward cultural research permits the examination of the multiple subcultures that exist within a society (Oyserman, 2016, 2017). For example, North American culture is not homogeneous; many subcultures exist, defined by factors such as ethnicity (e.g., African American, Asian American), religion (e.g., Christian, Muslim), geography (e.g., southern, midwestern), and others, as well as combinations of these factors. Current trends in cultural research document diversity and emphasize understanding how the historical, cultural, and subcultural contexts in which we live influence development throughout our lives.