Japanese Childrearing Advice in its Cultural, Social, and Economic Contexts

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Abstract
After describing the background and current state of historical interests among Japanese developmentalists, this article stresses the value of the direct participation of developmentalists in historical study. Japanese historical materials on childrearing were analysed from a developmental point of view and their relation to cultural, social, and economic contexts in five historical epochs was examined. The results revealed historical continuity of basic beliefs and values in Japanese ethnotheories on childrearing and human development, and their relation to certain structural and functional aspects of Japanese society was demonstrated. A new term, the "ethnopsychological pool of ideas" (EPI), is presented to denote a reservoir of knowledge, practices, sentiments, and values that maintains diverse components across historical periods. The ethnopsychological pool of early modem Japan contained divergent key components based on which a few schools of modem academic theories on child development can be constructed. The analysis suggests that theories of childrearing draw upon naive psychology, expert advice, and scientific psychology, and are mutually related as social constructions based on the ethnopsychological pool of ideas of a particular society.

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