Culture and Human Development

Joan Lucariello

Three major conceptualizations of the relation between culture and human development are discussed in this entry. According to one orientation, culture mediates development; sociocultural context affects the origin, development, nature, or functioning of behavior. According to a second approach, “the cultural mind,” the mind is claimed to have a cultural bent. Some behaviors are not the result of a developmental process, but rather represent cultural categories of mind. According to a third approach, “culture as frames of meaning,” culture is seen to be constituted by the person as an intentional agent. Persons construct and interpret experience in terms of meaning-imbued, culture-specific understandings or frames. Development consists in the accrual of these cultural frames. Human development will be discussed in this entry in terms of selected aspects of cognitive and social development. Sociocultural context is defined broadly to include social interaction, schooling, literacy, technology, cultural symbol systems (e.g., language), and Several ...

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