Immanuel Greene

Developmental Psychology
10/25/2015
AMDG
Biases in Babies
Child development across cultures has been a popular and heavily debated topic for numerous
years. Simply typing, into any database, a queue pertaining to child development in different parts of the
world returns an incredible amount of results and studies: dissecting different views on child
development, implicating the western world for stagnant views on child development (Kagitibasi, 1996),
and highlighting the need for intersectionality in studying development in unfamiliar cultures. With the
surplus of views on what constitutes development and how to understand the mechanisms children use to
reach developmental milestones, it is important to set up an inclusive lens for observation.
Thomas Balms Babies has been described as not a traditional documentary; there's no
narration, subtitles or scientific information imparted. (Puig, 2010), but Balms third person reporting on
development unintentionally offers scientific information and data that is left to the viewers for analysis
and interpretation. Balms cross-cultural juxtaposition of babies experiences and exploration in their
first year illustrates unique examples of how environments in which a child is raised can contribute to
their early development. Through the presentation of this unique perspective, Babies applies Banduras,
Piagets, and Vygotskys exploratory based theories to the systems of core knowledge that Spelke
discusses.
In the earlier scenes of the Babies, Balms displays four very different environments, opening
with children in rural Namibia, Africa. The first baby the audience is introduced to was a home birth in a
very natural setting. There were insects flying around, the habitants walked barefoot on the dusty and
rocky ground, and their living space was made up of wood, raffia, and clay. The second, near
Baychandmani, Mongolia, made the audience aware of the mothers commute to a hospital in the city in
order to have the baby. The baby was then wrapped very tightly and sent home with the mother.
Subsequently, the Japanese and the American baby were also born in a hospital, but the American baby
was shown to receiving medicaments after delivery. An early topic discussed in our Developmental
Psychology class: when does development start, gave the general consensus that it starts immediately. If

Greene 2
that is true, each of the environments is playing a role in the divergence of these childrens very similar
means of coming into the world.
With the lack of metropolitan areas surrounding the village in Namibia, Vygotskys Sociocultural
theory, and Banduras Social Learning theory are predominating explanations to the childs very early
development. The audience is instantly pulled into the world of the documentary when the opening scene
shifts from the two Namibian infant boys grinding something on a stone to the mother doing the same
thing before giving birth. Developmental psychology students should instantly recall Banduras stress on
imitation as a means for developing cognitive skills. (Berk, 2012). As the documentary continues to
explore life for Ponijao, there is increasing awareness of the lack of social interaction outside of the
family. Ponijao is in constant contact with his mother, brothers, or the other relatives in that village.
Balms clever opening shows Ponijao imitating a behavior that he probably observed from his mother in
preparation of food, and Bandura believes that Ponijaos ability to abstract rules general rules from
complex sets of observed behaviors affects their imitation and learning (Berk, 2012).
From what was edited into the film, all of the infants except for one seemed to be raised in an
environment of imitation. The child in Mongolia, Bayar, upon leaving the hospital was wrapped tightly in
cloth and did not move for the majority of the earlier scenes in the movie. This child at the very end of the
film was shown to be the last infant to fully stand on their own. Although the movie does not give
chronology or time labels in the viewing, this seemed like an intentional choice by the editing team.
Seeing that the three other children developed crawling, standing, and cruising skills seemingly before
Bayar emphasizes a usefulness of movement during the earlier months of childhood. This brings up the
issue of sensitive periods for development (Berk, 2012). The children in the three other regions took on
our class consensus of immediate development and were able to coordinate movements such as standing
or walking earlier. This of course could also be attributed to the editing of the movie. Though lack of
timestamps, narration, and other captioning removes a scripted bias towards what is happening during
various interactions during the movie, it also allows the audience to make their own assumptions.

Greene 3
None of this is to say that one cultures method of child development is better than the other.
Kagitcibasi in her book Development Across Cultures: A View from the other Side criticizes
ethnocentrism (Kagitcibasi 1996): having the idea that your own group or culture is better or more
important than others (Merriam Webster, 2015). In the first few chapters she brings up numerous
examples of instances where an unfamiliar practice was brought up to a Westerner, and their assumption
of the instance was the polar opposite of the intention. One example in the second chapter of her book
refers to a book written by Hiroshi Azuma where after a child refuses to eat his vegetables, the mother say
you dont have to eat it (Kagitcibasi, 1996), her American collegues remarked as if the mother did not
care about the childs eating the vegetable, whereas it was those mother that felt the strongest about that
topic. Kagitcibasi (1996) describes a bond between the mother and child through obedience, but once the
child decides to have their own way, the mother untied that bond.
These observations serve in part to display the attributional errors and observer bias that can be
incorporated into the movie. Given the aforementioned example, not fully understanding the implications
of language and the context of situations lead the Americans to make attributional errors about the
intentions of the Japanese mother, and possible incorrect assumption of the childs learning or cognitive
development. Kagitcibasi (1996) also mentions how in the American sense it would only carry the
meaning that the child was free to not eat the vegetable. Drawing on Vygotskys sociocultural theory, in
a Western sense, this interaction with the mother would seem to be placing less importance on vegetables,
but through her language (Japanese) a different intention is communicated. Vygotsky describes language
as a means to delvelop higher cognitive processes (Berk, 2012). He specifically means an infants private
speech, but communication and interaction with the mother facilitates development of private speech.
In the same way, attributional errors and biases are easily incorporated into the documentary.
Certain music choices being perceived as happy, sad, curious, or melancholy can dramatically affect
reception by viewers, and the aforementioned, long-winded rationale of cross cultural biases also
associate themselves with perception of music. A study done by Kate Hevner (1936), looks at the
emotional response to music. She found that across cultures, the tone of the music being played was

Greene 4
agreed upon: firm, dignified rhythms with rising melodies were perceived as happy, while long, agitated
rhythms with complex harmonies was perceived as sadness (Hevener 1936). This emotional response can
even be seen to affect people unconsciously. A series of studies done by Adrian C. North and colleagues
(1999) showed how ambient music played in shopping malls and cafeterias, even when unconsciously
perceived, significantly influenced buyers shopping habits. This should be taken into consideration when
using music in film. The music can influence behaviors even when not perceived by the viewer. However,
the choice to not include narration greatly decreases biases from viewers, regardless of the perception of
the tone by music.
Mari (Tokyo) and Hattie (San Francisco) were raised in an environment that may seem more
normalized to more Westernized cultures. Both children participated in classes, paired with positive
reinforcement from the parents, that taught certain skills. Mari was in a class where once she responded to
her name, everyone in the circle clapped for her, and Hattie was taken to play groups regularly, but on
their own they were also able to incorporate object around them into their creative play. Unlike the two
infants in the more rural areas, they seemed to be constantly surrounded by many unfamiliar objects to
tinker with. Many schemas were observed across the four stories, but substantially more were observed in
the Maria and Hatties.
Mari learned to sit amongst her parents work, picking up documents, CDs and pictures and
looking at them, perhaps taking on a Badurian behavior pattern of imitation. She then bangs them on
the floor and shakes them, suggesting a more Piagetian representation in her actions. Her developed
scheme of exploring her world included banging things on the floor. She attempts this with the CD and is
surprised at the result, adapting a new scheme for exploration of that object. The same PiagetianBanduran approach is seen with Hattie eating a banana. She perhaps learned to do so by observing a
family member peel a banana, and her scheme tells her that once peeled, it is okay to eat. She missed a
part of the peel and tried to eat it repeatedly, causing her to spit it out and, in [Piagetian] theory, reassess
her scheme and adapt to the possibility of not removing all of the peel.

Greene 5
In the two rural areas, motor development seemed to emerge later than in the urban areas.This
could also be due in part to the editing of the film. In reading Adolph et al.s (2014) work on motor skills
in many African countries like Uganda, motor skills of infants in Uganda were remarkably advanced
relative to Gessels norm, lending more towards the sequencing of scenes leading to that assumption.
Viewers do, however, see a lot of the exercises explained by Adolph et al in the film. Punijao is
constantly carried on his mothers back via a sling, which is believed to [provide] vestibular, visual, and
proprioceptive stimulation...carrying also facilitates the development of muscle strength and coordination
because infants must continually adjust posture to the movements of the caregiver. (Adolph et al, 2014).
With this type of constant stimulation by the mother and many other examples of stimulation from his
siblings, this particular environment lends itself to being an enriched environment for both motorperceptual and cognitive development.
Bayar is a challenge to write about, in that he seemed to develop the slowest. He did not seem to
have others around as often as the other infants did. As discussed earlier, he may have missed a sensitive
period for early motor development (as compared to the other infants), but that may also be normalized
for that particular culture. Bayar, growing up on his mother and fathers rural farm seemed to also take a
Bandurian approach to development in his imitation of his mother and father, or even older brother. He
dumps water out of buckets and makes messes, and has learned to climb onto objects towards the end of
the movie. His free roaming and exploration of the world around his, however, exhibits a Piagetian model
for development. He manipulates the world around him in his sensorimotor stage and displays apt
perceptual-motor skills in his climbing on and off of a cylindrical water basin-looking object. Exclusively
attributing Piagets theories to Bayar would rule out any interactions with his family, as researchers
thought Piaget attributed to much of the childs learning to sole exploration (Berk, 2012). Bayar also had
interactions with his mother, which seemed limited by the editing of the film. She was shown as repeating
his babbling, possibly acting as a reinforcement to speech, and in a similar scene we see speech emerge as
he calls out for his mother when she is not there. This shows cognitive development, and his
comprehension of mama being a means to find her.

Greene 6
David G. Meyers describes [psychologys] historic big issue as being the nurture versus nature
dispute. He goes on to say that the tension dissolves: Nurture works on what Nature endows (Meyers,
2011). The Nurture discussed in that chapter of his textbook is synonymous with the multiple factors
attributing to the childs development. Spelkes research on the theory of core knowledge incorporates
domains of core knowledge that are innate, one of which surrounds agents, and another that surrounds
objects (Spelke 2015). A review of the movie describes the parental figures as loving but somewhat
abstract presencestheir offspring might dimly perceive them, as sources of nourishment, shelter and
comfort. () Spelke believes that children first view others as objects, but once they start to realize the
intentional actions of humans, they start to put them into the category of agents (Spelke 2015). Through
these increased social interactions, the supposed innate capabilities are fostered into a developed cognitive
awareness, regardless of the cultural situation.
Living in different environments allots several different outcomes in terms of development. The
importance of cross-cultural studies is becoming more and more important as the division between
Western society and everyone else is being more and more emphasized. Awareness of our differences
through: campaigns in the media pertaining to equal rights, satirical shows on television, and
documentaries are becoming increasingly apparent in todays society, and with the enormous amount of
research being done in exploring these differences it is important to acknowledge this. There is no blanket
answer to what makes each individual different. From looking at Babies there is a microcosm of the
diversity that exists between environments influence on development. Blending and improvement on
ethnocentric theories should is a useful mechanism to analyzing the divergence of development that
initiates immediately with the common process of birth.

Greene 7
Adolph, K. (2014). Motor Skills. Handbook of Cultural Development Science, 6183.
Balms, T. (2010, May 07). Babies.
Hevner, K. (1936). Experimental Studies of the Elements of Expression in Music. The American Journal
of Psychology, 48(2), 246268
Huang, Y. & Spelke, E. S. (2015). Core knowledge and the emergence of symbols: The case of
maps. Journal of Cognition and Development, 16, 81-96
Kagtcbas, Cigdem., (2015) Ch. 2 Development in Context." Family and Human Development across
Cultures: A View from the Other Side. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates, 1996.
Print.
North, Adrian C.; Hargreaves, David J.; McKendrick, Jennifer, Journal of Applied Psychology,
Vol 84(2), Apr 1999, 271-276.
Puig, Claudia. (2010) Babies': A New Birth of Documentary Freedom." USA Today [McLean]
7 May 2010: n. pag. Print.
Myers, D. G. (2011). Exploring Psychology (8th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers.
Zoller Seitz, M. (n.d.). Official Site | Babies | Reviews & Quotes. Retrieved 23 October 2015,
from http://www.focusfeatures.com/babies/reviews

N. pag.