Race and Ethnicity Culture Overview

Culture and Ethnicity

• Culture encompasses conventions, traditions, beliefs, values, language, and tangible items, evolving with societal interactions.
• An ethnic group shares genealogy, ethnicity, religion, language, or national origins to promote a common identity.
• Ethnic gloss refers to the overgeneralization of an ethnic or cultural group, overlooking internal differences.
• Race significantly affects treatment, living conditions, employment, healthcare quality, and community participation.

Gender

• Gender roles and expectations influence individual development, leading to differentiated experiences.

Historical Context in Development

• Historical and environmental contexts were previously overlooked in developmental studies; now they are integral to understanding life paths.
• Early longitudinal studies revealed the impact of time and place on individual events.

Timing of Influences: Critical and Sensitive Periods

• Imprinting describes a young animal's instinctive attachment to its first moving object during early development stages.
• A critical period is a specific timeframe when the presence or absence of an event impacts development.
• Plasticity reflects the capacity for performance modification over time.
• The continuity-discontinuity debate examines if development is gradual (continuity) or consists of distinct stages (discontinuity).

Influences on Development

• Heredity involves inborn characteristics from biological parents, while the environment covers experiential impacts.
• Maturation is the process of typical physical and behavioral changes over time.
• Epigenetics studies how genes may "change" due to development or environmental influences.

Family Context

• The nuclear family consists of one or two parents and their biological, adopted, or stepchildren.
• Extended families include multiple generations, often living together.

Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Neighborhood

• SES is determined by family income and the educational/professional backgrounds of adults, influencing development through home quality, neighborhood, nutrition, healthcare, and education availability.
• Risk factors increase the likelihood of negative developmental outcomes.

Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Model of Development

• Development is influenced by genetic makeup and embedded in environmental systems:
  • The microsystem is the immediate living situation.
  • The mesosystem links different microsystems.
  • The exosystem connects larger social settings that indirectly affect the individual.
  • The macrosystem encompasses the broader cultural context.
  • The chronosystem includes life course transitions and sociohistorical events.

Evolutionary/Sociobiological Perspective

• Wilson's approach underscores the evolutionary and biological bases for behavior, rooted in Darwin's survival of the fittest and natural selection theories.
• Individuals with advantageous heritable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce.
• Ethology studies adaptive behaviors in species that enhance survival chances.
• Evolutionary psychology applies Darwinian principles to understand individual behavior.

Explore the intricate tapestry of culture defined by race and ethnicity. This quiz delves into how cultural practices, beliefs, and values are transmitted through generations. Understand the dynamics of ethnic groups and the impacts of cultural shifts in society.