About this session

Friday, 4:40 PM - 6:10 PM

Advancing representative science: Challenges and best practices for cross-cultural developmental psychology in the Global South

Progress toward more representative science has been slow, despite ongoing calls to diversify participant demographics in psychological studies (Adetula et al., 2022; Arnett, 2008; Henrich et al., 2010), for decolonised methodologies, equitable collaborations, and best practices (Broesch et al., 2020; Burger et al., 2023, Oppong, 2023), and more specifically in developmental studies (Amir et al., 2020; Broesch et al, 2023; Nielsen et al., 2017; Singh et al., 2023). This symposium brings together four papers that critically examine research on populations and by researchers from the Global South, addressing key issues in cultural representation across authorship, research focus and practices. These papers offer insights into current gaps and provide concrete recommendations for advancing best practices in cross-cultural developmental research.

Paper 1 conducted a systematic review of articles studying populations from the Global South in developmental journals, finding a significant underrepresentation of authors from the cultures being studied. Paper 2 conducted a systematic review of empirical articles in developmental journals, finding research topic predicted whether an article contained a cultural variable. Paper 3 examined children’s sharing behaviors in Brazil and Canada, and found children share more with age, when observed, and when they perceive themselves as less wealthy, discussing best cross-cultural practices. Paper 4 argues for moving away from extractive and towards community engaged research practices in cross-cultural developmental psychology, particularly when working with populations from the Global South. Together, these papers highlight key issues in cultural representation in developmental psychology and recommend best practices for future cross-cultural developmental work.

Paper #1
Title	Reframing representative science: Lessons from developmental psychology
Presenting author	Erin Robbins, University of St Andrews, School of Psychology & Neuroscience, Scotland

Paper #2
Title	Culture ignored: Topical gaps in cross-cultural developmental psychology research
Presenting author	Sarah Michelle Pope, Ph.D., Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology; Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, United States

Paper #3
Title	Bridging (virtual) borders: Insights from studying sharing behavior online in Canada and Brazil
Presenting author	Sylvia Pinheiro, Queen’s University, Psychology Department, Canada

Paper #4
Title	Community engaged practices cut across cultural boundaries
Presenting author	Yitong Wang, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Canada

View all paper details

Session chairs
Nicole J. Wen, Ph.D., Brunel University London, Centre for Culture and Evolution, Division of Psychology, Department of Life Sciences, United Kingdom; Bruce Rawlings, , United Kingdom

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