Two Worlds Of Childhood: U.S. and U.S.S.R.

Description

Why are American children more willing than Soviet children to cheat on tests, to take something that doesn't belong to them, to ignore another child who needs help? In this landmark experimental study, Urie Bronfenbrenner found that American children were readier to engage in antisocial behavior than their Soviet age-mates. The reason, Dr. Bronfenbrenner discovered, lies in the different patterns of child rearing in the two countries. Soviet upbringing, in the family and in collective settings in and out of school, is designed to assist in the making of the "New Soviet Man," a citizen who looks beyond his own immediate gratification to the needs and expectations of his society. By contrast, Dr. Bronfenbrenner shows that the largely accidental process of growing up in America succeeds in "the unmaking of the American child." We leave our children to be brought up by their peers, in an atmosphere pervaded by subtle opposition to the standards of adult society, and by the television set, which significantly contributes to the likelihood of antisocial behavior. In truth, the freedom we claim to give our children is largely "affluent neglect." In short, the process of "making human beings human” is breaking down in American society. Dr. Bronfenbrenner concludes with a series of practical proposals designed to counteract the destructive tendencies in American society and to assist us in rediscovering and transmitting to our children a renewed sense of purpose and social identity. Urie Bronfenbrenner is one of the few American social scientists who have done cross-cultural research in the Soviet Union. Dr. Bronfenbrenner has served as exchange scientist at the Institute of Psychology in Moscow and has made frequent trips to that country to study child rearing in the family and in collective settings. In the picture above he is shown playing and singing with a group of young Pioneers (similar to our Scouts). In the United States, Dr. Bronfenbrenner is well known as a developmental and social psychologist who seeks to translate the results of social research into public policy. He is one of the founding fathers of the Head Start Program and is a frequent advisor to the Federal Government on matters affecting national policy on children. He is Professor of Psychology and of Child Development and Family Studies in the College of Human Ecology at Cornell University.