Record Details

Six Cultures Study: Orchard Town, 1954-1955

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Field Value
 
Title Six Cultures Study: Orchard Town, 1954-1955
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/FHMWIC
 
Creator Whiting, Beatrice B.
Whiting, John
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description This data set is part of a larger cross-cultural study which explored the relation between patterns of child rearing and their impact on personality development both within and across cultures. The study was designed to determine the degree to which experiences in early childhood influence behavior, perceptions of the world, life-philosophies, religious beliefs and codes of ethics in adulthood.


A pair of investigators moved into a New England neighborhood to study a group of mothers to be used in the cross-cultural comparison. Using the same ethnographic methods applied by all the field teams stationed around the world, this study examined the child-training practices and the hypothesized individual and cultural differences in personality, especially in the areas of aggression, dependency, and the internalization of various mechanisms of behavior control. In order to provide an ethnographic perspective, a group of participants who were familiar (neighbors) with one another were observed. Twenty-four mothers were studied in relationship to one of their children, and each of the 24 children (ages three to 10) was observed and interviewed. Child observations were made in the various settings in which the child spent his/her time (e.g., breakfast at home, playing in the schoolyard), including situations that arose within these settings (such as insults or reprimands), and the child's responses to these situations (e.g., self-reliance, obedience, aggression, etc.). Parent interviews focused on care-taking behaviors (e.g., weaning and self-reliance training, nurturance, sociability, etc.). The children were also interviewed and administered Thematic Apperception Tests (TATs).


The Murray Research Archive holds copies of the original observational records of the children, and the parent and child interviews for the twenty-four mothers and twenty-four children.
 
Subject Social Sciences
 
Type field study