Enculturation
Enculturation
Enculturation is the lifelong process through which individuals learn and internalise the values, norms, behaviours, language, and roles of their culture. It begins at birth and continues throughout the lifespan. Through enculturation, people come to share a cultural framework that shapes their perception of the world, their judgements about right and wrong, their interpersonal expectations, and their sense of identity.
How Enculturation Happens
How Enculturation Happens
Enculturation occurs through both deliberate instruction (e.g., parents explicitly teaching rules of behaviour) and implicit observation (e.g., children watching how adults interact and internalising those patterns). Social Learning Theory provides an important mechanism for enculturation: children observe and imitate models — parents, teachers, peers, and media figures — and these observations shape their understanding of culturally expected behaviour. The models children identify with most strongly tend to be those who are similar to them, who have high status, or who are rewarded for their behaviour.
Fagot (1978) observed parents interacting with infants as young as 13 months and found that parents responded differently to behaviour depending on the child’s sex. Boys were encouraged to engage in physical activities and discouraged from playing with dolls. Girls were encouraged to play with dolls and to stay close to parents. These differential reinforcement patterns transmitted gender norms to children before those children could consciously reflect on them, demonstrating how enculturation operates at an early and largely unconscious level.
Enculturation and Cognitive Development
Enculturation and Cognitive Development
Enculturation does not merely shape social behaviour — it also influences cognition. Reed and Lave (1979) studied tailors from the Vai and Gola tribes in Liberia, comparing those who had received formal schooling with those who had not. They found that formally schooled participants performed better on abstract arithmetic problems presented in decontextualised, Western formats, while unschooled tailors performed better on the same mathematical operations when embedded in practical tailoring contexts. This suggests that formal education enculturates specific modes of abstract reasoning that are not universal but culturally specific.
Evaluation
Evaluation
Enculturation research captures the profound impact of culture on development and helps explain cross-cultural differences in behaviour, cognition, and identity. However, it is difficult to separate the effects of enculturation from genetic predispositions or universal developmental processes. Methodologically, most enculturation research uses observational or correlational designs that cannot establish causation. Social Cognitive Theory explains the mechanisms of enculturation through modelling and reinforcement, but it may underestimate children’s active agency in selecting and resisting cultural messages. Additionally, in globalised societies, individuals are simultaneously enculturated into multiple cultural frameworks, complicating the concept.
Practice Question
Question 3.2 — Short Answer
Using one research study, explain how enculturation shapes cognitive development in children.
Command term — “Explain”: Provide a detailed account with reasons. Identify the study, describe its procedure and findings, and explain what these reveal about enculturation’s role in cognitive development. [1 mark: study; 1 mark: procedure; 1 mark: findings; 1 mark: implication for enculturation]