Cooperations
Cooperation 3: Philosophy / Developmental Psychology
The goal of the collaboration between the projects on philosophy and developmental psychology was to investigate to what extent interaction patterns in mother–child dyads are subject to cultural differences. From a philosophical perspective, it was assumed that cooperative behavior and associated processes of role differentiation are negotiated through both verbal communication and nonverbal interaction. Developmental psychological findings, which were assessed by cross-cultural methods, suggest that there are cross-cultural differences in parent–child relationships relating to how children’s behavior is structured by attachment figures and whether children are socially expected to directly communicate their individual goals. Within the collaboration, we discussed philosophical and developmental psychological theories about the development of the ability to understand others’ intentions and actions. These discussions led to several questions including, what kind of understanding is necessary for shared actions? Is this related to the understanding of different roles when pursuing a shared goal? Does this also require the ability to attribute mental states to others or is there an understanding of actions and roles in context with a shared action underneath the level of attribution of intentions and other mental states, as a hypothesis of project philosophy suggests? What roles do emotions and emotion regulation play in the development of the ability to cooperate with others? Are there already cultural differences at this fundamental level of shared action? Findings based on an interview study suggest a culturally specific transmitted structure of the parent–child relationship (independent/egalitarian vs. interdependent/hierarchical) that influences to what extent goals and roles are communicated and negotiated (directly/indirectly; verbally/nonverbally) in everyday interactions.
The preparation of a coding scheme for the assessment of dyadic mother–child interactions in two cultures (Germany, Japan) has not yet been realized. A test of the fit between the coding scheme and video material is pending. Meanwhile, a preliminary viewing of the video material resulted in the observation that in both cultures only a little cooperative behavior (verbal and nonverbal) could be observed (likely because of the nature of the task). It remains to be investigated if and what culture-specific behaviors occur in emotion regulation.