Culture and psychological human development: Some methodological and thematic issues
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present some of the topics and some of the methodological problems of current psychological research regarding psychological development of personality in different cultures. The methodology section mentions the problems associated with the very concepts of culture and personality, the problematic claims to universality of evolutionary theories arising from the Euro-American environment as well as some of the proposed ways to study personality development in non-Western cultures without bias. It also gives some insight into various criticisms of the theory of evolution by stages as well as into some new research approaches proposed that aim to explain development, not only describe static states at different stages of development. The thematic section, after having briefly mentioned the main issues (eg. research on emotional, moral and spiritual development), focuses mainly on the concept of Self. It also presents an explanation of cultural differences in the concept of Self – the new model by C. Kagitcibaci: an autonomous – related Self, including socio-economic impact on the formation of this concept of Self.
(Fulltext in Czech)
Keywords
culture, human development, methodologyLiterature
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