This essay focuses on cultural differences even among toddlers. follows that cultural differences in psychological processes should become more
Because humans are born cultureless and acquire their culture as they are socialized, it follows that cultural differences in psychological processes should become more pronounced with age. Young children from different cultures should appear relatively more similar to each other (although, as you’ll soon see, there are still some cultural differences even among toddlers) than should older children, because younger CU LTU RAL DI F FERENCES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL PROCESSES EMERGE WITH AGE 171 children have been socialized less deeply into their cultures. Likewise, the most pronounced
for adults, because their minds have had much more time to be shape by cultural experiences. Conducting studies across different age groups is inherently challenging, and few studies have did this in different cultures. However, the few that have been do nicely highlight how people become socialize to think in culturally divergent ways. For example, consider people’s beliefs about how the future will unfold. One way is to extrapolate linearly from the recent past to the present and on to the future. For example, the average house in the United States sold for approximately.
$278,000 in 2012, and $307,000 in 2013. What will the average house sell for in 2020? However, it’s important to note that change can also occur nonlinearly. Indeed, the average house price was approximately $322,000 in 2007, $290,000 in 2008, and $257,000 in 2009. So, the pattern of house prices changed from decreasing in value (2007-2009) to increasing in value (2011-2013). And the pattern may well change again soon. Some research reveals that East Asians and North Americans differ in how they expect the future to unfold (Ji, 2008). 7, 9, see Chapter 9), optimism (You, Fung, & Isaacowitz, 2009), and tendencies to focus on positive aspects of the self (Falbo, Poston, Triscari, & Zhang, 1997; see Chapter 8).