Hostname: page-component-76d6cb85b7-8p85h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-07-17T15:42:33.640Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Let’s go WILD: increasing inclusivity in theories of developmental psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2025

Kim A. Bard Open the ORCID record for Kim A. Bard [Opens in a new window] ,
Heidi Keller Open the ORCID record for Heidi Keller [Opens in a new window]  and
David A. Leavens Open the ORCID record for David A. Leavens [Opens in a new window]
Kim A. Bard*
Affiliation:
Sponsored Affiliate, University of Michigan, Dearborn, MI, USA
Heidi Keller
Affiliation:
Department of Human Sciences, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
David A. Leavens
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton and Hove, UK
*
Corresponding author: Kim A. Bard; Email: kimabard@umich.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Short abstract

For decades, we have known that developmental psychological findings primarily describe Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic (WEIRD) samples, unrepresentative of the developmental landscape of all humans. A new approach advocates for a Worldwide, In situ, Local, and Diverse (WILD: Newson et al., 2021) psychology. Here we evaluate the extent (Bard, 2022) to which developmental theories are WEIRD or WILD, by considering potential bias in one bottom-up theory (Shared Intentionality) and in one top-down theory (Attachment). Theories drive research and we provide Five Steps to Increase Inclusivity (from Bard et al., 2021) that will contribute to re-building developmental psychological theories to embrace WILDness.

Keywords

attachmentcomparative studiesculturediversityinclusioninfancypointingshared intentionalitysocial cognition

Information

Type
Target Article
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e258
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Abels, M., Keller, H., Mohite, P., Mankodi, H., Shastri, J., Bhargava, S., Jasrai, S., & Lakhani, A. (2005). Early socialization contexts and social experiences of infants in rural and urban Gujarat, India. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 36, 717. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022105280511 Google Scholar
Abels, M., Papaligoura, Z., Lamm, B., & Yovsi, R. D. (2017). How usual is “play as you usually would”? A comparison of naturalistic mother-infant interactions with videorecorded play sessions in three cultural communities. Child Development Research, 2017, Article 7842030. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7842030 Google Scholar
Adamson, L. B. (1996). Communication development during infancy. Westview Press.Google Scholar
Ainsworth, M. D., & Marvin, R. S. (1994). On the shaping of attachment theory and research: An interview with Mary D. S. Ainsworth (Fall 1994). Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 60(2–3), 3–21.Google Scholar
Andrew, R. J. (1963). The origin and evolution of the calls and facial expressions of the primates. Behaviour, 20, 1–109.Google Scholar
Arnett, J. (2008). The neglected 95%: Why American psychology needs to become less American. American Psychologist, 63(7), 602–614. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.63.7.602 Google Scholar
Bard, K. (2022). Five Steps to Decolonizing the Study of Joint Attention [PowerPoint]. Retrieved from https://monographmatters.srcd.org/2022/03/30/teachingresources-fivesteps-powerpoint-86-4 Google Scholar
Bard, K. A. (2005). Emotions in chimpanzee infants: The value of a comparative developmental approach to understand the evolutionary bases of emotion. In Nadel, J., & Muir, D. (Eds.), Emotional development: Recent research advances (pp. 31–60). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198528845.001.0001 Google Scholar
Bard, K. A., Bakeman, R., Boysen, S. T., & Leavens, D. A. (2014). Emotional engagements predict and enhance social cognition in young chimpanzees. Developmental Science, 17(5), 682–696. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12145 Google Scholar
Bard, K. A., Brent, L., Lester, B., Worobey, J., & Suomi, S. J. (2011). Neurobehavioral integrity of chimpanzee newborns: Comparisons across groups and across species reveal gene-environment interaction effects. Infant and Child Development, 20(1), 47–93. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.686 Google Scholar
Bard, K. A., Gaspar, A. D., & Vick, S. J. (2011). Chimpanzee faces under the magnifying glass: emerging methods reveal cross-species similarities and individuality. In Weiss, A., King, J., & Murray, L. (Eds.), Personality and temperament in nonhuman primates. Developments in primatology: Progress and prospects. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0176-6_8 Google Scholar
Bard, K. A., Keller, H., Ross, K., Hewlett, B., Butler, L., Boysen, S. T., & Matsuzawa, T. (2021). Joint attention in human and chimpanzee infants in varied socio-ecological contexts. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 86(4), 1–228. https://doi.org/10.1111/mono.12435 Google Scholar
Bard, K. A., & Leavens, D. A. (2014). The importance of development for comparative primatology. Annual Review of Anthropology, 43, 183–200. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102313-030223 Google Scholar
Bernstein, B., & Henderson, D. (1969). Social class differences in the relevance of language to socialization. Sociology, 3(1), 1–20.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. (2012). Wild cultures: A comparison between chimpanzee and human cultures. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brady, L. M., Fryberg, S. A., & Shoda, Y. (2019). The importance of cultural context: Expanding interpretive power in psychological science. Observer, 32(3), 25–29.Google Scholar
Broesch, T., Lew-Levy, S., Kärtner, J., Kanngiesser, P., & Kline, M. (2022). A roadmap to doing culturally grounded developmental science. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 14, 587–609. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/xs8c3 Google Scholar
Bullowa, M. (1979). Before speech: The beginning of interpersonal communication. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Butterworth, G. (2003). Pointing is the royal road to language for babies. In Kita, S. (Ed.), Pointing: Where language, culture and cognition meet (pp. 9–33). Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (1994). Production and comprehension of referential pointing by orangutans. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 108(4), 307–317.Google Scholar
Callaghan, J. W. (2000). A comparison of Anglo, Hopi, and Navajo mothers and infants. In Field, T., Sostek, A. M., Vietze, P., & Leiderman, P. H. (Eds.), Culture and early interactions (pp. 115–131). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.Google Scholar
Camras, L. A., Bakeman, R., Chen, Y., Norris, K., & Cain, T. R. (2006). Culture, ethnicity, and children’s facial expressions: A study of European American, mainland Chinese, Chinese American, and adopted Chinese girls. Emotion, 6(1), 103–114. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.6.1.103 Google Scholar
Chapin, B. L. (2013). Attachment in rural Sri Lanka: The shape of caregiver sensitivity, communication, and autonomy. In Quinn, N., & Mageo, J. M. (Eds.), Attachment reconsidered: Cultural perspectives on a western theory (pp. 143–163). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/97811378657 Google Scholar
Chaudhary, N. (2004). Listening to culture: Constructing reality from everyday talk. Sage.Google Scholar
Chaudhary, N., Misra, G., Bansal, P., Valsiner, J., & Singh, T. (2022). Making sense of culture for the psychological sciences. Review of General Psychology, 26(4), 399–415.Google Scholar
Cheon, B. K., Melani, I., & Hong, Y.-Y. (2020). How USA-centric is psychology? An archival study of implicit assumptions of generalizability of findings to human nature based on origins of study samples. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(7), 928–937. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620927269 Google Scholar
Chisholm, J.S. (1984/2017). Navajo infancy: An ethological study of child development (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315125169 Google Scholar
Choate, P.W., Kohler, T., Cloete, F., CrazyBull, B., Lindstrom, D., & Tatoulis, P. (2019). Rethinking Racine v Woods from a decolonizing perspective: Challenging the applicability of attachment theory to indigenous families involved with child protection. Canadian Journal of Law and Society/Revue Canadienne Droit et Société, 34(1), 55–78. https://doi.org/10.1017/cls.2019.8 Google Scholar
Davila-Ross, M., Jesus, G., Osborne, J., & Bard, K.A. (2015) Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) produce the same types of ‘laugh faces’ when they emit laughter and when they are silent. PLoS ONE, 10(6), e0127337. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0127337 Google Scholar
Davila-Ross, M. & Palagi, E. (2022). Laughter, play faces and mimicry in animals: evolution and social functions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, 377, 20210177. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0177 Google Scholar
de Barbaro, K., & Fausey, C.M. (2022). Ten lessons about infants’ everyday experiences. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 31(1), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214211059536 Google Scholar
de Waal, F. (2022). Different: Gender through the eyes of a primatologist. W.W. Norton & Co.Google Scholar
Diener, M. (2000). Gift from the Gods: a Balinese guide to early child rearing. In DeLoache, J., & Gottlieb, A. (Eds.), A world of babies: Imagined childcare guides for seven societies (first edition). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dixon, S., Tronick, E., Keefer, C., & Brazelton, T. B. (1981). Mother-infant interaction among the Gusii of Kenya. In Field, T., Sostek, A. M., Vietze, P., & Leiderman, P. H. (Eds). Culture and early interactions (pp 149–168). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.Google Scholar
Dunbar, R. I. (2003). The social brain: mind, language, and society in evolutionary perspective. Annual Review of Anthropology, 32(1), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.anthro.32.061002.093158 Google Scholar
Duschinsky, R. (2020). Cornerstones of Attachment Research. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med-psych/9780198842064.001.0001 Google Scholar
Field, T. (2019). Social touch, CT touch and massage therapy: A narrative review. Developmental Review, 51, 123–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2019.01.002.Google Scholar
Forslund, T., Granqvist, P., van IJzendoorn, M., Sagi-Schwartz, A., Glaser, D., Steele, M., … Duschinsky, R. (2022) Attachment goes to court: Child protection and custody issues. Attachment & Human Development, 24(1), 1–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616734.2020.1840762 Google Scholar
Fouts, R. (1997). Next of kin: What my conversations with chimpanzees have taught me about intelligence, compassion, and being human. Michael Joseph.Google Scholar
Frohlich, M., Wittig, R. & Pika, S. (2016). Should I stay or should I go? Initiation of joint travel in mother–infant dyads of two chimpanzee communities in the wild. Animal Cognition, 19, 483–500. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-015-0948-z Google Scholar
Funk, L, Scheidecker, S., Chapin, B.L., Schmidt, W.J., El Ouardani, S. E., & Chaudhary, N. (2023). Feeding, bonding, and the formation of social relationships: Ethnographic challenges to attachment theory and early childhood interventions. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gaskins, S. (2006). Cultural perspectives on infant-caregiver interaction. In Enfield, N. J., & Levinson, S. C. (Eds.), Roots of human sociality: Culture, cognition and interaction (pp. 279–298). Routledge.Google Scholar
Gaskins, S., Beeghly, M., Bard, K. A., Gernhardt, A., Liu, C. H., Teti, D. M., Thompson, R. A., Weisner, T. S., & Yovsi, R. D. (2017). Meaning and methods in the study and assessment of attachment. In Keller, H., & Bard, K. A. (Eds.), The cultural nature of attachment: Contextualizing relationships and development (pp. 195–229). MIT Press.Google Scholar
Geissmann, T. (1999). Duet songs of the siamang, Hylobates syndactylus: II. Testing the pair bonding hypothesis during a partner exchange. Behaviour, 136, 1005–1039. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853999501694 Google Scholar
Goodall, J. (1986). The chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of behaviour. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, A., & DeLoache, J. S. (2016). A world of babies: Imagined childcare guides for eight societies (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gottlieb, A. (2000). Luring your child into this life: A Beng path for infant care. In DeLoache, J., & Gottlieb, A. (Eds.), A world of babies: Imagined childcare guides for seven societies (1st ed., pp. 55–89). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gratier, M. (2003). Expressive timing and interactional synchrony between mothers and infants: cultural similarities, cultural differences, and the immigration experience, Cognitive Development, 18, 533–554.Google Scholar
Greenfield, P.M., & Keller, H. (2004). Cultural psychology. In Spielberger, C. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of applied psychology (pp. 545–553). Oxford, UK: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, N. (2010). The weirdest people in the world? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–83.Google Scholar
Herrmann, E., Call, J., Hernandez-Lloreda, M. V., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2007). Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The Cultural Intelligence hypothesis. Science, 317(5843), 1360–1366. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1146282 Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S. & Lamb, M. E. (2005). Hunter-gatherer childhoods: Evoutionary, developmental, and cultural perspectives. Routledge.Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S., Lamb, M. E., Leyendecker, B., & Scholmerich, A. (2017). Parental investment strategies among Aka foragers, Ngandu farmers, and Euro-American urban-industrialists. In Chagnon, N. (Ed.), Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective (2nd ed., pp. 155–178). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351329200 Google Scholar
Hewlett, B. S., Lamb, M. E., Shannon, D., Leyendecker, B., & Schölmerich, A. (1998). Culture and early infancy among central African foragers and farmers. Developmental Psychology, 34(4), 653.Google Scholar
Hobaiter, C., Leavens, D. A., & Byrne, R. W. (2014). Deictic gesturing in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)? Some possible cases. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 128, 82–87. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033757 Google Scholar
Horowitz, A.C., 2003. Do humans ape? Or do apes human? Imitation and intention in humans (Homo sapiens) and other animals. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 117, 325–336. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.117.3.325.Google Scholar
Jablonka, E. & Lamb, M.J. (2007). Précis of Evolution in Four Dimension. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30(4), 353–365. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X07002221 Google Scholar
Jahoda, G. (2012). Critical reflections on some recent definitions of “culture”. Culture & Psychology, 18(3), 289–303. Google Scholar
Jensvold, M. L. A. & Gardner, R. A. (2000). Interactive use of sign language by cross-fostered chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114(4), 335–346. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.114.4.335 Google Scholar
Jukes, M. C. H, Ahmed, I., Baker, S., Draper, C. E., Howard, S. J., McCoy, D. C., Obradovi´c, J., & Wolf, S. (2024). Principles for adapting assessments of executive function across cultural contexts. Brain Science, 14, 318. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci14040318 Google Scholar
Karasik, L. B., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Ossmy, O., & Adolph, K. E. (2018). The ties that bind: Cradling in Tajikistan. PloS ONE, 13(10), e0204428. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204428.Google Scholar
Kärtner, J., Keller, H., & Chaudhary, N. (2010). Cognitive and social influences on early prosocial behavior in two sociocultural contexts. Developmental Psychology, 46(4), 905–914. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019718 Google Scholar
Keller, H. (2007). Cultures of Infancy. Erlbaum Google Scholar
Keller, H. (2018). Universality claim of attachment theory. Children’ s socioemotional development across cultures. PNAS, 115(45), 11414–11419. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1720325115 Google Scholar
Keller, H. (2019). The role of emotion in socialization processes across cultures: Implications for theory and practice. In Matsumoto, D., & Hwang, H. C. (Eds.), The handbook of culture and psychology (pp. 209–234). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Keller, H. (2022). The myth of attachment theory. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Keller, H., & Bard, K. A. (Eds.). (2017). The cultural nature of attachment: Contextualizing relationships and development. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Keller, H., Bard, K. A., Morelli, G., Chaudhary, N., Vicedo, M., Rosabal-Coto, M., Scheidecker, G., Murray, M., & Gottlieb, A. (2017). The myth of universal sensitive responsiveness: Comment on Mesman et al. (2017). Child Development, 89(5), 1921–1928. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13031 Google Scholar
Keller, H., & Chaudhary, N. (2017). Is the mother essential for attachment? Models of care in different cultures. In Keller, H., & Bard, K. A. (Eds.), The cultural nature of attachment: Contextualizing relationships and development (pp. 109–138). MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kellogg, W. N., & Kellogg, L. A. (1933). The ape and the child: A study of environmental influence upon early behavior. Hafner Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Kline, M. A., Shamsudheen, R., & Broesch, T. (2018). Variation in the universal: Making cultural evolution work in developmental psychology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 373(1743), 20170059. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2017.0059 Google Scholar
Kramer, K. L. (2022). Female cooperation: evolutionary, cross-cultural and ethnographic evidence. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, 378, 20210425. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0425 Google Scholar
Krause, M. A., Bard, K.A. & Leavens, D. A. (Eds.). (in press) Pointing: Culture, Development, and Evolution. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Krause, M. A., Udell, M. A. R., Leavens, D. A., & Skopos, L. (2018). Animal pointing: Changing trends and findings from 30 years of research. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 132, 326–345. https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000125 Google Scholar
Krupenye, C., & Call, J. (2019). Theory of mind in animals: Current and future directions. WIREs Cognitive Science, 10, e1503. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1503 Google Scholar
Lamb, M. E., Thompson, R. A., Gardner, W. P., Charnov, E. L., & Estes, D. (1984). Security of infantile attachment as assessed in the “strange situation”: Its study and biological interpretation. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 7(1), 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00026522 Google Scholar
Lamm, B., Keller, H., Teiser, J., Gudi, H., Yovsi, R. D., Freitag, C., … Lohaus, A. (2018). Waiting for the second treat: Developing culture-specific modes of self-regulation. Child Development, 89(3), e261–e277. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12847 Google Scholar
Lancy, D. (2015). The anthropology of childhood: Cherubs, chattel, changelings (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lancy, D. (2022). The anthropology of childhood: Cherubs, chattel, changelings (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lavelli, M., Carra, C., Rossi, G., & Keller, H. (2019). Culture-specific development of early mother-infant emotional co-regulation: Italian, Cameroonian, and West African immigrant dyads. Developmental Psychology, 55(9), 1850–1867. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000696 Google Scholar
Leavens, D. A. (2014). The plight of the sense-making ape. In Cappuccio, M., & Froese, T. (Eds.), Enactive cognition at the edge of sense-making (pp. 81–104). Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Leavens, D. A., Bard, K. A., & Hopkins, W. D. (2010). BIZARRE chimpanzees do not represent “the chimpanzee.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 100–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/S0140525x0000166 Google Scholar
Leavens, D. A., Bard, K. A., & Hopkins, W. D. (2019). The mismeasure of ape social cognition. Animal Cognition, 22, 487–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-017-1119-1 Google Scholar
Leavens, D. A., Elsherif, M., & Clark, H. (2023). What animals can tell us about attentional prerequisites of language acquisition. Language & Communication, 92, 55–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2023.06.004 Google Scholar
Leavens, D. A., & Hopkins, W. D. (1998). Intentional communication by chimpanzees: A cross-sectional study of the use of referential gestures. Developmental Psychology, 34(5), 813–822. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.34.5.813 Google Scholar
Lyn, H., Russell, J. L., & Hopkins, W. D. (2010). The impact of environment on the comprehension of declarative communication in apes. Psychological Science, 21, 360–365. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610362218 Google Scholar
Maynard, A. E. (2002). Cultural teaching: The development of teaching skills in Maya sibling interactions. Child Development, 73(3), 969–982.Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1954). Some theoretical considerations on the problem of mother-child separation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 24(3), 471–483. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.1954.tb06122.x Google Scholar
Meehan, C. L. & Crittenden, A. L. (Eds) (2016). Childhood: Origins, evolution, and implications. School for Advanced Research Press/UNM Press. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.22969 Google Scholar
Meehan, C. L., & Hawkes, S. (2013). Cooperative breeding and attachment among Aka foragers. In Quinn, N., & Mageo, J. M. (Eds.), Attachment reconsidered: Cultural perspectives on a western theory (pp. 85–113). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/97811378657 Google Scholar
Mesquita, B. (2022). Between us: How cultures create emotions. W.W. Norton & company.Google Scholar
Miller, P. J., Sperry, D. E., & Sperry, L. L. (2024). A deficit story in motion: How marginalized youngsters are defined out of the educational game before they enter school. Journal of Social Issues, 80, 1218–1237. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12647 Google Scholar
Mistry, J., Contreras, M., & Dutta, R. (2013). Culture and child development. In Lerner, R. M., Easterbrooks, M. A., & Mistry, J. (Eds.), Handbook of Psychology (2nd Edition): Volume 6, Developmental psychology (pp. 265–285). John Wilesy & Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Morelli, G., Quinn, N., Chaudhary, N., Vicedo, M., Rosabal–Coto, M., Murray, M., Gottlieb, A., Scheidecker, G., & Takada, A. (2018b). Ethical challenges of parenting intervention in low– to middle-income countries. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(1), 5–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117746241 Google Scholar
Morelli, G. A., Bard, K. A., Chaudhary, N., Gottlieb, A., Keller, H., Murray, M., … Vicedo, M. (2018a). Bringing the real world into developmental science: A commentary on Weber, Fernald, and Diop (2017). Child Development, 89(6), e594–e603. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13115 Google Scholar
Mundy, P. (2018). A review of joint attention and social-cognitive brain systems in typical development and autism spectrum disorder. European Journal of Neuroscience, 47, 497–514. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13720 Google Scholar
Nakane, I. (2012). Silence. In Paulston, C. B., Kiesling, S. F., & Rangel, E. S. (Eds.), The handbook of intercultural discourse and communication (1st ed., pp. 158–179). Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar
Ndzenyuiy, M., & Keller, H. (2025). The cultural nature of collaboration. In Verschure, P. F. M. J. (Ed.), The Nature and Dynamics of Collaboration (pp. 125–140). MIT press.Google Scholar
Newson, M., Buhrmester, M., Xygalatas, D., & Whitehouse, H. (2021). Go WILD, not WEIRD. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 6(1–2), 80–106. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.38413.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M., Haun, D., Kärtner, J., & Legare, C. H. (2017). The persistent sampling bias in developmental psychology: A call to action. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 162, 31–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.04.017 Google Scholar
Nishida, T. (2012). Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore: Natural history and culture at Mahale. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nsamenang, B. A. (1992/2017). Perceptions of parenting among the Nso of Cameroon. In Hewlett, B. S. (Ed.), Father-child relations: Cultural and biosocial contexts (pp. 321–345). Transaction Publishers/Routledge.Google Scholar
Ochs, E., & Schieffelin, B. B. (1984). Language acquisition and socialization: Three developmental stories and their implications. In Shweder, R. A., & LeVine, R. A. (Eds.), Culture theory: Essays on mind, self, and emotion (pp. 276–320). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oppong, S. (2023). Promoting global ECD top-down and bottom-up. Ethos, 51, 321–325. https://doi.org/10.1111/ethos.12393 Google Scholar
Oster, H. (2005). The repertoire of infant facial expressions: an ontogenetic perspective. In Nadel, J., & Muir, D. (Eds.), Emotional development: Recent research advances (pp. 261–292). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Otto, H., & Keller, H. (2015). A good child is a calm child: Mothers’ social status, maternal conceptions of proper demeanor, and stranger anxiety in one-year old Cameroonian Nso children. Psychological Topics, 24, 1–25.Google Scholar
Otto, H., & Keller, H. (Eds.). (2018). Different faces of attachment: Cultural variations on a universal human need. Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Palagi, E., Caruana, F., & de Waal, F. B. (2022). The naturalistic approach to laughter in humans and other animals: towards a unified theory. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 377(1863), 20210175. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0175 Google Scholar
Pika, S., Wilkinson, R., Kendrick, K. H., & Vernes, S. C. (2018). Taking turns: bridging the gap between human and animal communication. Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, 285, 20180598. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2018.0598 Google Scholar
Pika, S., & Zuberbühler, K. (2008). Social games between bonobos and humans: evidence for shared intentionality?. American Journal of Primatology, 70(3), 207–210. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.20469 Google Scholar
Plooij, F. X. (1984). The behavioural development of free-living chimpanzee babies and infants. Ablex.Google Scholar
Povinelli, D. J., Bierschwale, D. T., & Čech, C. G. (1999). Comprehension of seeing as a referential act in young children, but not juvenile chimpanzees. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 17(1), 37–60. https://doi.org/10.1348/026151099165140.Google Scholar
Quinn, N., & Mageo, J. M. (Eds.). (2013). Attachment reconsidered: Cultural perspectives on a western theory. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/97811378657 Google Scholar
Richman, A. L., LeVine, R. A., New, R. S., Howrigan, G. A., Welles-Nystrom, R., & LeVine, S. E. (1988). Maternal behavior to infants in five cultures. In LeVine, R. A., Miller, P. M., & West, M. M. (Eds.), Parental behavior in diverse societies. New directions for child development, no 40. Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Ross, K. M., Bard, K. A., & Matsuzawa, T. (2014). Playful expressions of one-year-old chimpanzee infants in social and solitary play contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, Article 741. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00741 Google Scholar
Rothbaum, F., Weisz, J., Pott, M., Miyake, K., & Morelli, G. (2000). Attachment and culture: Security in the United States and Japan. American Psychologist, 55(10), 1093–1104. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.10.1093 Google Scholar
Röttger-Rössler, B., Scheidecker, G., Jung, S., & Holodynski, M. (2013). Socializing emotions in childhood: A cross-cultural comparison between the Bara in Madagascar and the Minangkabau in Indonesia. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 20(3), 260–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2013.806551 Google Scholar
Russell, J. L., Lyn, H., Schaeffer, J. A., & Hopkins, W. D. (2011). The role of socio-communicative rearing environments in the development of social and physical cognition in apes. Developmental Science, 14, 1459–1470. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2011.01090.x Google Scholar
Salomo, D., & Liszkowski, U. (2013). Sociocultural settings influence the emergence of prelinguistic deictic gestures. Child Development, 84, 1296–1307. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12026 Google Scholar
Sanches de Oliveira, G., & Baggs, E. (2023). Psychology’s WEIRD problems. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sauciuc, G.-A., & Persson, T. (2023). Empirical challenges from the comparative and developmental literature to the Shared Intentionality Theory- a review of alternative data on recursive mind reading, prosociality, imitation and cumulative culture. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1157137. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1157137 Google Scholar
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., Boysen, S. T., & Rumbaugh, D. M. (1978). Symbolic communication between chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Science, 201, 641–644. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.675251 Google Scholar
Scheidecker, G. (2023). Parents, caregivers, and peers: Patterns of complementarity in the social world of children in rural Madagascar. Current Anthropology, 64(3), 286–320.Google Scholar
Scheidecker, G., Chaudhary, N., Keller, H., Mezzenzana, F., & Lancy, D. (2023). Poor brain development in the global south: Challenging the evidence base of early childhood interventions. Ethos, 51(1), 3–26.Google Scholar
Schmidt, W. J., Keller, H., & Rosabal Coto, M. (2023). The cultural specificity of parent-infant interaction: Perspectives of urban middle-class and rural indigenous families in Costa Rica. Infant Behavior and Development, 70, 101796. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2022.101796 Google Scholar
Schröder, L., Kärtner, J., Keller, H., & Chaudhary, N. (2012). Sticking out and fitting in: Culture-specific predictors of 3-year-olds’ autobiographical memories during joint reminiscing. Infant Behavior and Development, 35(4), 627–634. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2012.06.002 Google Scholar
Serpell, R. (2023). Affirmative theory as a bridge between local and international concerns in the design of Early Childhood Education. Presentation given at ISSBD 15th African Regional Workshop, Kampala, Uganda.Google Scholar
Seymour, S. C. (2013). “It takes a village to raise a child”: Attachment theory and multiple child care in Alor Indonesia, and in North India. In Quinn, N., & Mageo, J. M. (Eds.), Attachment reconsidered: Cultural perspectives on a western theory (pp. 115–139). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/97811378657 Google Scholar
Simons, D. J., Shoda, Y., & Lindsay, D. S. (2017). Constraints on generality (COG): A proposed addition to all empirical papers. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 12(6), 1123–1128. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691617708630 Google Scholar
Singh, L. (2024). Decolonizing and diversifying research in cognitive development. Journal of Cognition and Development, 25(2), 175–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/15248372.2024.2324000 Google Scholar
Snowdon, C. T. & Cleveland, J. (1984) ‘Conversations’ among pygmy marmosets. American Journal of Primatology, 7, 15–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.1350070104 Google Scholar
Sperry, D. E., Sperry, L. L., & Miller, P. J. (2019). Re-examining the verbal environments of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Child Development, 90(4), 1303–1318. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13072 Google Scholar
Takada, A. (2020). The ecology of playful childhood: The diversity and resilience of caregiver-child interactions among the San of Southern Africa. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49439-1 Google Scholar
Tannen, D. (2012). Turn-taking and intercultural discourse and communication. In Paulston, C. B., Kiesling, S. F., & Rangel, E. S. (Eds.), The Handbook of Intercultural Discourse and Communication (1st ed., pp. 135–157). Blackwell Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar
Thomas, E., Murphy, M., Pitt, R., Rivers, A., & Leavens, D. A. (2008). Understanding of visual attention by adult humans (Homo sapiens): A partial replication of Povinelli, Bierschwale, and Cech (1999). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 122, 428–436. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7036.122.4.428.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. A., Simpson, J. A., & Berlin, L. J. (Eds.). (2021). Attachment: The fundamental questions. Guildford.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (1996). Do apes ape? In Galef, B. G. Jr., & Heyes, C. M. (Eds.), Social learning in animals: The roots of culture (pp. 319–346). Academic Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2018). How children come to understand false beliefs: A shared intentionality account. PNAS, 115(34), 8491–8498. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1804761115 Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2019). Becoming human: A theory of ontogeny. The Belknap Press of Harvard University.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2022). The coordination of attention and action in great apes and humans. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. B, 377, 20210093. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0093 Google Scholar
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Moll, H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 675–735.Google Scholar
Tsai, J. L. (2007). Ideal affect: Cultural causes and behavioral consequences. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2(3), 242–259.Google Scholar
Tulviste, T. (2019). Parenting: Talking with children across cultural contexts. In Tulviste, T., Best, D. L., & Gibbons, J. L. (Eds.), Children’s social worlds in cultural context (pp. 135–147). Springer Nature.Google Scholar
van Hooff, J. A. R. A. M. (1972). A comparative approach to the phylogeny of laughter and smiling. In Hinde, R. (Ed.), Non-verbal Communication (pp. 209–241). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vicedo, M. (2013). The nature and nurture of love: From imprinting to attachment in Cold War America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/9780226020693 Google Scholar
Vick, S.-J., Waller, B. M., Parr, L. A., Pasqualini, M. C., & Bard, K. A. (2007). A cross-species comparison of facial morphology and movement in humans and chimpanzees using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 31, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-006-0017-z Google Scholar
Vogt, P., Mastin, J. D., & Schots, D. M. (2015). Communicative intentions of child-directed speech in three different learning environments: Observations from the Netherlands, and rural and urban Mozambique. First Language, 35, 341–358. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723715596647 Google Scholar
Wadende, P., & Simatende, B. (2022). Indigenous care and motivation practices as a transition strategy into formal school tasks in Kenya and Zambia. NYU Global TIES for Children EQUAL Network Practice, Brief No. 1. School of Education and Human Resource Development, Kisii University, Kenya. Limited circulation report.Google Scholar
Waller, B. M. & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2005). Differential behavioural effects of silent bared teeth display and relaxed open mouth display in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Ethology, 111, 129–142.Google Scholar
Wang, Q. (2016). Why should we all be cultural psychologists? Lessons from the study of social cognition. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 11(5), 583–596. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916166455 Google Scholar
Waters, E., & Deane, K. E. (1985). Defining and assessing individual differences in attachment relationships: Q-methodology and the organization of behavior in infancy and early childhood. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, 41–65.Google Scholar
Waters, S. F., Richardson, M., Mills, S. R., Marris, A., Harris, F., & Parker, M. (2024). Beyond attachment theory: Indigenous perspectives on the child–caregiver bond from a northwest tribal community. Child Development, 95(6), 1829–1844. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14127 Google Scholar
Whiten, A., Custance, D. M., Gomez, J.-C., Teixidor, P., & Bard, K. A. (1996). Imitative learning of artificial fruit processing in children (Homo sapiens) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 110, 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1037//0735-7036.110.1.3 Google Scholar
WHO, UNICEF, & WBG. (2018). Nurturing care for early childhood development: A framework for helping children survive and thrive to transform health and human potential. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Yahalom, J. & Fein, E. (2025). Fostering cultural engagement through ethnographic psychological research: An introduction to the special section. Qualitative Psychology, 12(1), 25–33. https://doi.org/10.1037/qup0000327 Google Scholar