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IB DP Psychology — Culture | SL & HL | Paper 1
🎯 Learning Intentions By the end of this note, you will be able to:
- Define Western models of human development and indigenous models of development using IB-aligned terminology.
- Explain the assumptions underlying Western developmental psychology and how these differ from indigenous perspectives on growth and identity.
- Describe the role of culture, community, and context in shaping what "development" means across different societies.
- Evaluate research evidence for and against the universality of Western developmental models using supporting and opposing studies in ACAS format.
- Apply concepts of Western and indigenous development to a real-world case study from the sociocultural perspective.
- Discuss the extent to which Western models of development provide a complete and culturally valid explanation of human growth.
- Analyse this topic using relevant concept areas: Bias, Perspective, Responsibility, and Causality.
Introduction & Context
Imagine you are asked to describe what it means for a child to "grow up well." You might think of milestones — learning to walk, starting school, developing independence, forming a personal identity. These ideas feel natural and obvious. But consider this: are they universal truths about human development, or are they assumptions shaped by the particular culture in which psychology was born?
For most of the twentieth century, developmental psychology was dominated by theories produced in Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) societies. Theorists like Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg built influential stage models of cognitive, social, and moral development — models that were often presented as universal blueprints for all human beings. Yet across much of the world, communities have long held their own rich frameworks for understanding how people grow, learn, and become full members of their societies. These indigenous models of development frequently emphasise different values, different timelines, and different endpoints than their Western counterparts.
This tension — between universal claims and culturally specific realities — sits at the heart of the psychology of culture. Understanding it requires us to question not just what development looks like, but who gets to define it, and whose knowledge counts as valid.
🗺️ Analogy — Two Maps of the Same Territory Imagine two cartographers mapping the same mountain range. One uses GPS coordinates and satellite data; the other uses generations of oral knowledge, seasonal patterns, and the names given to each peak by the people who have lived there for centuries. Both maps describe the same mountains — but they capture different truths, prioritise different features, and serve different purposes. Neither map is simply "wrong." Western and indigenous models of development are like these two maps: they describe the same human journey, but through fundamentally different lenses, shaped by different values and ways of knowing.
Core Concepts
Before we can compare Western and indigenous models, we need to understand what each one actually claims. Western developmental psychology did not emerge in a vacuum — it was built by researchers working within specific philosophical traditions that valued individualism, rationalism, and the idea that human development follows a predictable, universal sequence of stages. These assumptions are so deeply embedded in the field that they can be difficult to see as assumptions at all.
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