Dataset Information

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Generation of Novel Ideas in Middle Childhood.

ABSTRACT: Innovation and creativity have recently been in the center of the debate on human cultural evolution. Yet, we know very little about childrens' developing capacity to generate novel ideas, as a key component of innovation and creativity, in different cultural contexts. Here, we assessed 8- to 9-year-old children from an autonomous and a relational cultural context, namely Münster (urban Germany; n = 29) and Banten (rural Cameroon; n = 29). These cultural contexts vary largely in their ecology, social structure, and educational system, as well as the cultural models on children's individual development and thinking. Therefore, they provide an optimal contrast to investigate cultural similarities and differences in development of creative capacities. We applied classical divergent thinking tasks, namely an alternative uses task and a pattern association task. In these tasks, children are asked to generate as many ideas as possible what an object could be used for or what a pattern could be. First, our study revealed a good internal consistency and inter-task correlations for the assessment of children's fluency and the generation of unique ideas in both cultures. Second, and most critically, we found significantly higher levels of creative capacities in children from Münster in contrast to Banten. This was reflected in both a higher number of ideas (fluency) and a higher number of unique ideas (uniqueness). Third, looking at the type of answers that children gave in the alternative uses task, we found that children from Münster and Banten uttered a similar number of conventional ideas, but that children from Münster uttered more ideas to manipulate an object, invent novel things with an object, and involve an object in play or pretend play, or in a fantasy story. This demonstrates that early creative development is strongly influenced by the cultural context and substantiates the cultural nature of human cognitive development.

SUBMITTER: Koster M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7438980 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Cross-Cultural Differences in the Generation of Novel Ideas in Middle Childhood.

Köster Moritz M Yovsi Relindis R Kärtner Joscha J

Frontiers in psychology 20200813

Innovation and creativity have recently been in the center of the debate on human cultural evolution. Yet, we know very little about childrens' developing capacity to generate novel ideas, as a key component of innovation and creativity, in different cultural contexts. Here, we assessed 8- to 9-year-old children from an autonomous and a relational cultural context, namely Münster (urban Germany; <i>n</i> = 29) and Banten (rural Cameroon; <i>n</i> = 29). These cultural contexts vary largely in th ...[more]

PMID: 32903850

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Project description:Cultural psychology assumes that the ecocultural conditions of a particular setting shape children's pathways, resulting in multiple adaptive solutions to universal developmental tasks. While the adaptivity of attachment and children's psychosocial development during the early years has been thoroughly investigated, attachment research during middle childhood continues to reflect Western ideals of family. Adhering to ideas of monotropy, most studies only focus on parental attachment figures. However, this restricted empirical perspective does not only result in a Eurocentric bias, it also neglects theoretical reflections on the growing complexity of attachment during middle childhood, thus only considering a limited selection of all individuals contributing to the children's feeling of security, even in Western settings. To investigate the variability and adaptivity of attachment during middle childhood, this study assessed children's attachment figures in two extreme settings of development, introducing an exhaustive network perspective on attachment during this developmental stage. Children of the Cameroonian Nseh (N = 11) and German children from Bad Nauheim (N = 11) identified and differentiated all individuals contributing to their attachment need in an exploratory and transdisciplinary approach. The socio-structural composition of children's attachment networks follows the context-specific systems of care and concepts of interconnectedness and the ecological features of each setting, resulting in marked differences between both contexts. The functional composition, however, reflects children's preoccupation with similar developmental challenges across settings. Same-aged peers contribute to the children's feeling of safety in both settings, thereby deviating from previous reflections on their subordinate relevance during middle childhood. Overall, these results support the adaptiveness of children's attachment patterns while also demonstrating universal trends across contexts. They highlight the collective nature of attachment during middle childhood that exceeds the impact of individual dyads. Thus, broad and context-sensitive research strategies become a necessary addition to attachment research in order to generate an exhaustive understanding for children's development across cultural contexts.

Dataset Information

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Generation of Novel Ideas in Middle Childhood.

Publications

Cross-Cultural Differences in the Generation of Novel Ideas in Middle Childhood.

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