Human Development Review

Human Development Review

Introduction

Dr. Barbara Rogoff is a renowned author and the winner of the William James Book Award. The award was given as her efforts in writing the book “The Cultural Nature of Human Development”. The book intends to serve the goals of the society through examples and clarifying psychological and discipline realities. The book identifies cultural differences and states how human development tends to be a different process for all the individuals across cultures. T The following paper summarizes her point of view in the book.

Summary

Dr. Rogoff states that it is a critical requirement for the people in the contemporary world including the adults, children and the future generations to understand cultural differences and develop a profound understanding of the subject. However, it is also important that cultures of neighbors and other distant people must be kept in mind and differences are to be analyzed (Rogoff, 2007). This contributes to a stable society where every individual understands the values of the other. The purpose of the book is to make everyone understand including the scholars and the practitioners the characteristics of cultures and how it contributes to human development.

The book describes the process of human development culturally with research based evidences. It gives an example of a three year old child who is required to take care of his/her younger siblings in Oceania, whereas in the United States, the babysitter has to be ten years elder than the baby/child. Efe infants play with matches, but Americans are not allowed to play with knives, weapons and machetes (Rogoff, 2007). What is the reason behind such differences in communities across boundaries? It depends on age expectations as well as cultural distinctions.

What a child does and how it performs depends on the expectations of the community form the child and the cultural structure in which the has been growing up. Often, in poverty struck areas, children accompany their parents, see what their parents have been doing to earn bread and butter, learn from them and then participate in such activities at an early age which makes them learn how to use all the weapons, knives, stones and machetes to earn a living (Glaveanu, 2013). These cultural differences are often taken for granted by the people who have grown up and have been living in the same community for long. This is a highly contributing factor in human development and has a major impact on the psychology of the child. The book helps in expansion of knowledge through application of theoretical perspectives and broad literature and documentations of cultural differences as well as similarities, and how they play an important role in human development from birth.

There are both cultural and individual processes that provide a major contribution in human development. It has been observed and researched that individuals consider themselves participants in distinct cultural societies where they engage with other individuals and move forward for a shared vision and shared endeavors (Glaveanu, 2013). Their practices are often considered to be ...