Early Experience and Culture

Annotations:

• Childhood provides us with many different experiences, each of which shapes how we interact with the world when we are older.
• We learn to read and write, we learn facts about the physical world and we learn to understand other people and ourselves.
• It is this last point that we are interested in here. Although everybody's childhood is unique, psychologists have identified persistent themes in childhood experiences that predispose us towards particular types of relationship as adults.

1. Childhood
   1. Parent-child relationships
      1. Shaver et al, 1988

         Annotations:

         • Shaver claimed that what we experience as romantic love in adulthood is an integration of three behavioural systems acquired in infancy - attachment, caregiving and sexuality systems.
         • The first system, attachment, is related to the concept of the internal working model.
         1. Bowlby, 1969

            Annotations:

            • According to Bowlby, later relationships are likely to be a continuation of early attachment styles (secure and insecure) because the behaviour of the infants' primary attachment figure promotes an internal working model of relationships which leads the infant to expect the same in later relationships.
            • The caregiving system is knowledge about how one cares for others, learned by modeling the behaviour of the primary attachment figure.
            • The sexuality system is also learned in relation to early attachment; for example individuals who suffered from an avoidant attachment are more likely to hold the view that sex without love is pleasurable.
            1. Attachment disorders

               Annotations:

               • In some extreme cases a child's internal working model leads them to develop an attachment disorder.
               • Some children find the closeness of relationships with others very difficult indeed. These children resist of reject the mutual intimacy of loving family relationships and may be suffering from an attachment disorder.
               • As a consequence, at times of stress, they have someone with whom they have developed a close relationship and who can comfort and reassure them. 
               • The specific causes of attachment disorder are unknown, but a common thread appears to be abuse or neglect during infancy.
               • The child's behaviour and emotions create a disturbed way of relating to others, which may involve a lack of responsiveness or excessive over-familiarity.
               • The pervasive nature of attachment disorder means that it can interfere  with subsequent interpersonal relationships, such as the development of normal peer relations and ultimately romantic relationships adulthood.
      2. Research support

         Annotations:

         • The relationship between attachment style and later adult relationships has been demonstrated in a number of studies.
         1. Fraley, 1998

            Annotations:

            • For example, Fraley conducted a meta-analysis of studies, finding correlations from 0.10 to 0.50 between early attachment type and later relationships. 
            • Fraley suggested that one reason for low correlations may be because insecure-anxious attachment is more unstable.
         2. Kirkpatrick and Hazan, 1994
   2. Interaction with peers
      1. Qualter and Munn, 2005

         Annotations:

         • Qualter and Munn have shown that children also learn from their experiences with other children. The way that a child thinks about himself and others is determined at least in part by specific experiences, which then become internalised.
         • As a result, children may develop a sense of their own value as a result of interactions with others, which in turn determines how they approach adult relationships.
      2. Nangle et al, 2003

         Annotations:

         • Nangle et al. claim that children's friendships are training grounds for important adult relationships. Close friendships are characterised by affection, a sense of alliance and intimacy, and the sharing of secrets and personal information.
         • The experience of having a friend to confide in promotes feelings of trust, acceptance and a sense of being understood - characteristics that are also important in later romantic relationships.
      3. Commentary

         Annotations:

         • Gender differences in childhood relationships have been found in a number of studies.
         1. Richard and Schneider, 2005

            Annotations:

            • Richard and Schneider found that girls have more intimate friendships than boys and are more likely to report care and security in their relationships with other girls.
         2. Erwin, 1993

            Annotations:

            • Erwin found that boys' relationships tend to be more competitive, a fact attributed to the greater emphasis on competitive play activities. In contrast, girls are more likely to engage in cooperative and sharing activities.
            • However, Erwin claims that sex differences in the experience of childhood relationships have been over-emphasised, and that the many similarities tend to be overlooked.
2. Adolescent

   Annotations:

   • Adolescence is a critical period in development, marked by the increased importance of close friendships and the emergence of romantic relationships.
   • During adolescence, close friends surpass parents as the primary source of social support, and contribute to adolescents' self-concept and well-being.
   1. Carver et al, 2003

      Annotations:

      • By age 16, most adolescents have experienced a romantic relationship.
   2. Parent-child relationships

      Annotations:

      • Although attachment theory has traditionally focused on the parent-infant attachment bond, there is evidence that attachment processes also shape adolescent relationships.
      1. Allen and Land, 1999

         Annotations:

         • Allen and Land suggest that adolescent relationships are based on an internal model of relationships from from their own parent-child relationship plus their experiences in current relationships.
         • Adolescents thus acquire relationship experience, with each relationship affecting the next or current relationship. The advent of formal operational thinking allows adolescents to view their attachment relationships more objectively, comparing relationships with parents to hypothetical ideals.
         • This comparison may result in the conclusion that one or even both parents are deficient in meeting the adolescent's current attachment needs, or that other relationships might meet attachment needs better than current relationships with parents do.
      2. Commentary
         1. Coleman and Hendry, 1999

            Annotations:

            • Breaking free from paternal control may be important in adolescent development, but recent research has indicated that autonomy is most healthy when accompanied by continuing warm and close relationships with parents.
            • Coleman and Hendry called this "connectedness".
            1. Larson et al, 1996

               Annotations:

               • Larson supports the importance of "connectedness"  in adolescent relationships.
               • They used pagers to find out what 10-18 year olds were doing at random times during the day.
               • Although the amount  of time spent with "family" decreased sharply in early adolescence, the time spent with each parent individually was fairly consistent throughout, suggesting that adolescent relationships supplement rather than replace parent-child relationships.
   3. Interaction with peers

      Annotations:

      • In adolescence, attachment shifts from parents to peers. Romantic relationships in adolescence serve a number of purposes.
      • First, they help to achieve the goal of separation from parents. Having shifted their attachment focus from parents to peers, adolescents can redirect intense interpersonal energy towards their romantic partner.
      • Second, romantic relationships allow the adolescent to gain a type of emotional and physical intimacy that is quite different from that experience with parents.
      1. Madsen, 2001

         Annotations:

         • Madsen tested the effects of dating behaviour in adolescence (ages 15-17 1/2) on the quality of young adult romantic relationships (ages 20-21). 
         • She found that moderate or low dating frequency predicted higher-quality young adult relationships, whereas heavy dating predicted poorer quality YA relationships.
         • This suggests that some dating in adolescence is advantageous for adult relationship quality, but too much can be maladaptive. How much is too much though?
      2. Commentary

         Annotations:

         • Although research suggests that romantic relationships in adolescence can be healthy for later adult relationships, it has also shown the potential for some negative effects.
         1. Haynie, 2003

            Annotations:

            • Haynie found that romantic involvement increased some forms of deviance in adolescents by as much as 35%.
            1. Neeman et al, 1995

               Annotations:

               • Neeman found that romantic involvement in early to middle adolescence was associated with decreases in academic achievement and increases in conduct problems.
               • In late adolescence, romantic involvement was no longer related to these negative outcomes, suggesting that it is the timing of romantic relationships in adolescence that determines the influence, if any, they will have.
         2. Roisman et al, 2004

            Annotations:

            • Madsen's finding that heavy dating patterns during adolescence are associated with poorer quality adult relationships is challenged by the research of Roisman.
            • They found no effect of romantic experiences at age 20 on romantic relationships at age 30, suggesting that there is no consistent evidence that adolescent romantic relationships are the "building blocks" of adult relationships.
3. Love's unending legacy

   Annotations:

   • In an ongoing longitudinal study spanning more than 25 years, 78 participants were studied at four key points - infancy, early childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
   • Caregivers reported on their children's attachment behaviour at one year of age. At six to eight years old, the children's teachers were asked to rate how well the children interacted with their peers.
   • At 16 years, the participants were asked to describe their close friendships, and as young adults, participants' romantic partners were asked to describe their relationship experiences.
   • The findings of this study supported the claim that expression of emotions in adult romantic relationships can be related back to a person's attachment experiences during earlier social development.
   • Researchers found that those participants who were securely attached as infants were rated as having higher social competence as children. Children who were socially competent at age six to eight were found to be closer to their friends at age 16.
   • Finally, those who were closer to their friends as 16 year-olds were more expressive and emotionally attached to their romantic partners in early adulthood.
   1. Determinism

      Annotations:

      • Research such as this may appear to indicate that very early experiences have a fixed effect on later adult relationships, and therefore, children who are insecurely attached at one year of age are doomed to experience emotionally unsatisfactory relationships as adults.
      • This is fortunately not the case as researchers found plenty of cases where participants were experiencing happy adult relationships despite not having been securely attached as infants.
      • Simpson concluded that the study does NOT suggest that "...an individual's past unalterably determines the future course of his/her relationships."
   2. Simpson et al, 2007
4. Restricted samples

   Annotations:

   • In many studies of adolescent romantic relationships, there has been a reliance on small, highly selective samples of adolescents from one school or one city, usually in the US.
   • A major disadvantage of such samples is that they do not adequately represent the experience of adolescents in other areas or other cultures.
   • If social factors determine adolescent experiences, then it is difficult to generalise findings from one highly specific culture to all cultures.

Annotations:

• In our experiences of relationships, we tend to view the whole process from the perspective of our own culture.
• In particular, our exposure to cultural stories of love and friendship structure what we might expect and how we should act in our relationships with others.
• However, all cultures are not the same, therefore we might expect many differences in how relationships are viewed and how they are acted out.
• Psychologists have discovered important differences between Western cultures such as the US and the UK, and non-Western cultures such as India and China.

1. Voluntary/Non-voluntary

   Annotations:

   • A distinguishing feature of many Western cultures is that we live in predominantly urban settings, with relatively easy geographical and social mobility.
   • This ensures that, on a daily basis, we voluntarily interact with a large number of people, many of whom are first acquaintances.
   • Western cultures, therefore, appear to be characterised by a high degree of choice in personal relationships and a greater "pool" of potential relationships.
   • Non-Western cultures, on the other hand, have fewer large urban centres, and less geographical and social mobility, and people therefore have less choice about whoman they interact with on a daily basis.
   • Interactions with strangers are rare, and relationships are frequently tied to other factors, such as family or economic resources.
   1. Commentary

      Annotations:

      • In societies with reduced mobility, "non-voluntary" or arranged marriages make good sense and seem to work well.
      • Divorce rates are low for such marriages, and, even more surprising, in perhaps about half of them the spouses report that they have fallen in love with each other. Epstein, 2002.
      1. Epstein, 2002
      2. Myers et al, 2005

         Annotations:

         • Myers studied individuals in India living in arranged marriages. No differences in marital satisfaction were found when compared to individuals in non-arranged in the US.
      3. Xiaohe and Whyte, 1990

         Annotations:

         • However, in some rapidly developing cultures, such as China, there has been a noticeable increase in "love matches," i.e. a move away from traditional "arranged" marriages.
         • In China, instances in which parents dominate the process of partner choice have declined from 70% prior to 1949, to less than 10% in the 1990s.
         • What effect has this had on marital satisfaction? A study of women in Chengdu, China, found that women who had married for love felt better about their marriages (regardless of duration) than women who experienced arranged marriages.
2. Individual/Group-based

   Annotations:

   • Western cultures place great importance on the rights and freedom of the individual, with individual happiness and pleasure seen as fundamentally important.
   • Such cultures are described as individualist because of their focus on the individual rather than the group.
   • In non-Western cultures, the group tends to be the primary unit of concern. Members of such collectivist cultures are encouraged to be interdependent rather than independent.
   • The cultural attitudes of individualist cultures, where individual interests are more highly regarded than group goals and interest, are consistent with the formation of relationships that are based on freedom of choice, whereas collectivism leads to relationships that may have more to do with the concerns of family or group.
   1. Moghaddam et al, 1993
   2. Commentary

      Annotations:

      • Although we might expect relationships based on love to produce more compatible partners, this may not necessarily be the case.
      • Parents may be in a better position to judge compatibility in the long-term, whereas young people may be "blinded by love" and overlook areas of personal incompatibility that will become apparent later.
      • However, contrary to this traditional view, in Xiaohe and Whyte's study, freedom of mate choice appeared to promote marital stability rather than instability.
3. Continuity and discontinuity

   Annotations:

   • Using a comparison of Chinese and North American societies, Hsu described the Chinese regard for heritage and ancestry, and the suspicion with which change is generally viewed.
   • American culture, on the other hand, emphasises progress, with change seen as inevitable and important. Things that are "old-fashioned" are viewed with disdain.
   • This cultural difference is consistent with the types of relationship typically found in Western and non-Western cultures.
   • Non-Western cultures that emphasise continuity are therefore likely to be dominated by permanent relationships. Western cultures emphasise change and discontinuity, and therefore tend to favour more temporary relationships.
   1. Hsu, 1953
   2. Commentary

      Annotations:

      • The non-Western shift to more discontinuous and non-permanent relationships is relatively recent.
      • Fifty years ago, divorce was rare in the West and extended family groups more common (for example, according to the Statistical Office of the European Communities, divorce rates for British women were 2 per 1000 in 1960 rising to just over 12 per 1000 in 2007).
      • This marks a shift within Western society which may again be related to greater urbanisation and mobility, indicating that the significant cleavage may not be Western/non-Western or individualist/collectivist but urban/non-urban.
4. Norms and rules

   Annotations:

   • Norms are general descriptions of what is considered appropriate behaviour within a particular relationship. These act as guidelines for behaviour, and influence how we act out any given relationship.
   • One such norm plays a key part in personal relationships is the norm of reciprocity, i.e. for a benefit received, an equivalent benefit should be returned.
   1. Ting-Toomey, 1986

      Annotations:

      • Ting-Toomey found that in individualist cultures recipcity in personal relationships tends to be voluntary, but in collectivist cultures it is more obligatory.
      • In such cultures, failure to return a favour is seen as a failure of ones' moral duty. In Japanese culture, for example, there are specific rules about gift-giving and reciprocating, whereas no such formal norms exist in Western cultures.
   2. Rules

      Annotations:

      • Rules within a relationship may be explicit (as in the case of a formal marriage) or implicit and difficult to define (as in the case of friendship).
      • Cross-cultural research has demonstrated the important role of such relationship rules in different cultures.
      1. Argyle et al, 1986

         Annotations:

         • Argyle examined the presence and nature of relationship rules in the UK, Italy, Hong Kong and Japan.
         • They found that different rules were seen as being relevant to relationships across the four cultures (e.g. the rules for close friendships), but there were also important similarities.
         • All cultures acknowledged the importance of relationship rules such as showing courtesy and respect and avoiding social intimacy.
   3. Commentary

      Annotations:

      • Argyle et al.'s cross-cultural comparison of relationship rules in different cultures did find support for some predictions (e.g. rules concerning intimacy) but failed to support others (e.g. the claim that Japanese people placed more formalised gift exchange than the British).
      • However, a problem with this research is that the list of rules was formulated in the UK, and may have failed to include rules that are specific to a particular culture such as Japan.
      • Research on cross-cultural differences in norms and rules is important to be able to conduct relationships successfully.
      • Knowledge of the norms and rules underlying cross-cultural relationships is an important aspect of any attempt to understand and improve relations between different cultural groups within a host country.
      1. Argyle et al, 1986
5. Culture and romance

   Annotations:

   • Love and romance are viewed as being the stuff that long-term relationships are made of. Indeed, "falling in love" is viewed as an important part of the process of growing up.
   • Marrying for love is seen as a vital component of long-term relationships in the West, but for Chinese couples, romance and love are less important and are only considered in the light of responsibility towards parents and the family.
   1. Erikson, 1968

      Annotations:

      • Erikson believed that the establishment of an intimate relationship is an essential task of young adulthood which, if unsuccessful, will lead to social isolation.
   2. Ho, 1986

      Annotations:

      • Spontaneous expression of love, especially in terms of sex outside marriage, is not considered appropriate in Chinese society.
   3. Moore and Leung, 2001

      Annotations:

      • Moore and Leung tested this predicted cultural difference in an Australian study.
      • They compared 212 Anglo-Australian students (born in Australia, NZ or UK) and 106 Chinese-Australian students (born in Hong Kong or China) to see if the "romantic conservatism" of Chinese students would manifest itself in different attitudes towards romance and different romantic styles.
      • Of the two groups, 61% of the Anglo-Australian students were in a romantic relationship, compared to just 38% of Chinese students.
      • Chinese students reported significantly more lonliness than Anglo-Australian students.
      • Anglo-Australian males were less romantic (and more casual about relationships) than were females. In contrast, Chinese males were as romantic as Chinese females.
      • Contrary to the stereo-typical view that romance is a characteristic only of Western cultures, positive attitudes to romantic love were endorsed by both groups.
6. Eritrea

   Annotations:

   • In Eritrea, a Rashaidan wedding guest arrives on camelback accompanied by his three wives.
   • In Rashaidan cultures, young men and women have few chances to meet of their own accord, so marriages are usually arranged by families.
   • Brides as young as sixteen may be married to men of fifty or more, who can afford the large dowry of jewelry, camels or cash.
   1. Ethiopia

      Annotations:

      • A Surma bride from Ethiopia wears a clay lip plate inserted six months before marriage.
      • Successive stretching is achieved by placing increasingly larger plates into the lip. The final size of the plate in an indication of the number of cattle required by the girl's family for her hand in marriage.
7. Importance of culture

   Annotations:

   • One reason why social psychologists have traditionally ignored culture in their study of human relaqtionships is because of their preoccupation with the experimental method and with US students as the unit of their study.
   • Laboratory experiments, through the manipulation of isolated variables, are seen as the most rigorous way of establishing cause and effect, and the best way of furthering our understanding of the processes involved in human relationships.
   1. Hogg and Vaughan, 2008

      Annotations:

      • However, Hogg and Vaughan point out, people do bring their cultural "baggage" into the laboratory.
      • Although cultural background may be seen as a problematic extraneous variable to some researchers, it is clear that culture itself is an important variable that influences the relationship processes being studied.
8. Is love a universal evolutionary adaptation?
   1. Pinker, 2008

      Annotations:

      • Pinker views romantic love as a "human universal" that has evolved to promote survival and reproduction among human beings.
      • Being in a long-term committed relationship offers lower mortality rates, increased happiness, and decreased stress.
      • As a result, there is a clear adaptive value to being in a long-term relationship, but how necessary is love?
      • For romantic love to be an evolved adaptation, it should be experienced everywhere among human groups.
   2. Bartels and Zeki, 2000

      Annotations:

      • Evidence for universality of romantic love also comes from Bartels and Zeki, who claim to have discovered a "functionally specialised system", that lights up during fMRI scans of the brains of people who claim to be in love.
   3. Jankowiak and Fischer, 1992

      Annotations:

      • Research has shown that romantic love is not exclusive to Western cultures, but is also found in many non-Western cultures.
      • For example, Jankowiak and Fischer searched for avidence of romantic love in a sample of non-Western tribal societies.
      • They found clear evidence of romantic love in 90% of the 166 cultures studied.