Cross-cultural developmental comparisons: The case of Japanese-American infant and mother activities and interactions. What we know, what we need to know, and why we need to know

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to review the status of one important field of psychological comparison between Japanese and American cultures, viz., activities and interactions of infants and mothers. The article is organized around three issues. The first concerns some of what we know already about Japanese and American infants and mothers. This part of the review focuses on comparative studies of infant activity and the epistemological controversy surrounding investigations of infant activity in relation to the origins of culture. Infant activity is a central feature and a common denominator of most cross-cultural developmental comparisons of Japanese and American family life. An equally important goal of the substantive part of this review is heuristic. The second issue in this article concerns why we need to know about similarities and differences between Japanese and American infants and mothers. The third concerns what we need to know from future comparative research on Japanese and American family life.