Culture and development

A cross-cutting theme of the research unit is the examination of the interplay between culture and development across the lifespan. On the basis of findings on the cultural diversity of human development in different domains, we address not only the question of culture-specific developmental trajectories but also the extent to which (developmental) psychological findings can be generalized. Based on this, we develop constructive perspectives for basic and applied psychology.

  • Current projects

    RePro (DFG) – Others’ requests may dampen the desire to do good

    iSmile (DFG) – The effects of caregivers on infant smiling behavior and development

  • General publications

    Broesch, T., Lew-Levy, S., Kärtner, J., Kanngiesser, P., & Kline, M. (2023). A roadmap to doing culturally grounded developmental science. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 14, 587–609. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-022-00636-y

    Kärtner, J., Schuhmacher, N., & Giner Torréns, M. (2020). Social-cognitive development across cultures. Progress in Brain Research, 258, 225–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2020.06.011

    Kärtner, J. (2018). Beyond dichotomies – (M)others’ structuring and the development of toddlers’ prosocial behavior across cultures. Current Opinion in Psychology, 20, 6–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.07.040

    Nielsen, M., Haun, D., Kärtner, J., & Legare, C. (2017). The persistent sampling bias in developmental psychology: A call to action. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 162, 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.017

    Kärtner, J. (2015). The autonomous developmental pathway: The primacy of subjective mental states for human behavior and experience. Child Development, 86, 1298–1309. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12377

    Keller, H. & Kärtner, J. (2013). Development – The cultural solution of universal developmental tasks. In M. Gelfand, C.-Y. Chiu, & Y.-Y. Hong (Eds.), Advances in Culture and Psychology (Vol. 3), (pp. 63–116). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199930449.003.0002

  • Publications on attention and observational learning

    Jurkat, S., Köster, M., Chacón, L. H., Itakura, S., & Kärtner, J. (2023). Visual attention across cultures: Similarities and differences in child development and maternal attention styles. Developmental Science, e13368. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13368

    Jurkat, S., Gruber, M., & Kärtner, J. (2021). The effect of verbal priming of visual attention styles in 4- to 9-year-old children. Cognition, 212, 104681. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104681

    Jurkat, S., Köster, M., Yovsi, R., & Kärtner, J. (2020). The Development of context-sensitive attention across cultures: The impact of stimulus familiarity. Frontiers in Psychology, 11:1526. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01526

    Köster, M., Itakura, S., Yovsi, R., & Kärtner, J. (2018). Visual attention in 5-year-olds from three different cultures. PLoS ONE, 13(7): e0200239. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200239

    Köster, M. & Kärtner, J. (2018) Context-sensitive attention is socialized via a verbal route in the parent-child interaction. PLoS ONE, 13(11): e0207113. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0207113

    Köster, M., Castel, J., Gruber, T., & Kärtner, J. (2017). Visual cortical networks align with behavioral measures of context-sensitivity in early childhood. NeuroImage, 163, 413–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.08.008

  • Publications on culture-sensitive counseling and intervention

    Nieder, C., Müller-Butzkamm, G. & Kärtner, J, (2023). Evaluation of Eltern Aktiv – A parenting program for refugee families in Germany. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2023.2235670

    Nieder, C., Bosch, J. F., Nockemann, A. P., & Kärtner, J. (2022). Evaluation of RISE: A Sexual Violence Prevention Program for Female College Students in India. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 37(7–8), NP5538–NP5565. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260520959631

    Echterhoff, G., Hellmann, J., Back, M., Kärtner, J., Morina, N., & Hertel, G. (2020). Psychological antecedents of refugee integration. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15, 856–879. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619898838

    Schöllhorn, A., Borke, J., Schiller, E., & Kärtner, J. (2016). Beratung mit Familien aus unterschiedlichen kulturellen Kontexten – Ein Prozessmodell zur kultursensitiven Beratung für Familien mit Säuglingen und Kleinkindern [Counselling for Families from Different Cultural Contexts – A Process Model for the Culture-Sensitive Counselling of Families with Babies and Infants], Familiendynamik, 4, 284–292. http://dx.doi.org/10.21706/FD-41-4-284

    Borke, J., Schiller, E. M., Schöllhorn, A., & Kärtner, J. (2015). Kultur – Entwicklung – Beratung. Kultursensitive Therapie und Beratung für Familien mit Säuglingen und Kleinkindern. Vandenhoek & Ruprecht.

    More projects in our Counseling Lab (German only)