Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• McSwain, Romola

Titel

Care and conflict in infant development: An East-Timorese and Papua New Guinean comparison

Ist Teil von

• Infant behavior & development, 1981-01, Vol.4, p.225-246

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

1981

Quelle

Elsevier Journal Backfiles on ScienceDirect (DFG Nationallizenzen)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• A pattern of adult permissiveness allied with insensitivity and physical restriction resulting in agonistic behavior in infants characterizes the socialization process in East Timor and distinguishes it from that in the Papua New Guinea sample. Here, adult permissiveness combines with awareness of infant responses and positive encouragement of infant physical independence. Irritation and aggression is absent among the New Guinean babies. In spite of differing circumstances, both infant groups detach themselves without anxiety. Behavioral analysis of films of twelve East Timorese and twelve Papua New Guinean subjects from the age of one to 15 months, and their caregivers, revealed some similarities and a complex of clear differences between the two groups. The similarities suggest features of socialization which further comparison may show to be universal. The differences can be labelled cultural and are possibly related to ecological variables.