Human development: Cross-cultural perspectives

Human development is typically studied from an individualistic perspective ignoring the sociocultural context. Yet fundamental variations are engendered in this process by contextual factors, ranging from the familial to the social structural. Development of competence and development of the self, two areas of extensive research and conceptualization, can benefit greatly from contextual analysis. Though greatly needed, a contextual perspective has its share of challenges and problems. Foremost among these is the relativism implied which, when taken to extremes, precludes all comparison and rejects universal standards. An integrative/functional approach, combining the contextual and the comparative, promises to resolve the controversy. It can shed some light on the complex interactional processes underlying both the commonality and the diversity observed across cultures.