The WEIRD Problem in Infant Growth Writing Assignment

The “WEIRD” Problem in Infant Growth
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Abstract
Behavioral psychologists have made a significant contribution to the understanding of the development of human behavior. Their research has helped in understanding how different factors contribute to behavior transition from childhood to adulthood. Research articles published in psychology journals and other social science journals have been used to make enormous claims about human behavior. While it is true that their work has had an impact to the understanding of human behavior, there has been a recent concern on the manner in which study samples are recruited. The primary focus of this paper is to support the WEIRD problem as argued in (Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010). “WEIRD” is an acronym for Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democracy. The specific argument of this paper is that most of the generalized conclusions about human behavior are flawed ad do not represent the picture of human species. The primary concern is on how the study samples are recruited into the study. According to Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan (2010), behavioral psychologists make broad claims based on samples recruited from the WEIRD societies. Since the recruited sample does not warrant the representation of the human species, this paper incorporates Babies documentary on child development psychology and conquers with Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan (2010) discounting most of the claims that have been made about child development and behavior.
Introduction
Different societies vary in cultural values and practices that have an impact on the child’s upbringing and the overall development. A child in a poor country is not exposed to the same environment like the child in a developed or rather, an industrialized world. The range of opportunities and choices available for children in developed countries is absent for their counterparts in poor and remote parts of the world. In spite of scholars understanding the existence of these differences and variations, their work has always carried a generalized assumption that recruitment of a smaller sample of educated students in the United States can be generalized to represent the global population. These studies, in most cases, do not indicate the assumptions they made in recruiting samples. They assume that every child is exposed to equal development environment and opportunity that ends up shaping his behavior (Gregdowney, 2010). This assumption disadvantages and denies children from the poor regions of the world an opportunity to be studied and be understood from their natural environment. An analysis of how WEIRD created a flawed perception on human behavior reveals the reasons for a need to rethink WEIRD journals on human behavior and the broad claims they have been making in published research and peer-reviewed journals.
The Problem of Recruiting Samples
One of the interesting areas in behavioral psychology is that there is strict variability among people and different classes and cultures. We live in a multicultural society where our surroundings shape our behavior. A child in the west is not exposed to the same environment that a child in Africa experiences. In the documentary Babies, the film director embarks on a journey of comparing the environment of upbringing for four children exposed to different environments. Two of the four sampled children are from poverty-stricken countries, Namibia and Mongolia. The remaining two are from the industrialized west, San Francisco in the United States and the other from Japan. The selection of these children is to help the audience of this documentary realize and discover the differences that exist in infant development and how it is erroneous to make a generalized conclusion on behavior, especially considering that infants are exposed to different environments in their stages of development.
According to Brookshire (2013), scientists and behavioral psychologists make broad claims about human behavior on assumption that there are no variations or if any, very minimal in infant development. In the documentary, the observed differences and variations in the upbringing do not warrant being ignored. Baby Ponijao from Namibia is a representation of how poverty shapes personality and behavior. In minute seventeen of the video, the audience sees the baby sharing an open kiss with the dog. This is something that an affluent society would condemn, especially considering that hygiene is a point of focus. Mothers in Namibia also share nipples when breastfeeding their children. In Namibia, fathers are hardly around to impact the psychological and emotional development of their children. Infants are often playing around with their mothers in the absence of father figure. The ba...