Individualism and cognitive development

Cognitive individualism and the child as scientist program.

In this paper, I examine the charge that Gopnik and Meltzoff's 'Child as Scientist' program, outlined and defended in their 1997 book Words, Thoughts and Theories is vitiated by a form of 'cognitive individualism' about science. Although this charge has often been leveled at Gopnik and Meltzoff's work, it has rarely been developed in any detail. I suggest that we should distinguish between two ...

Individualism, Autonomy and Self-expression: the Human Development Syndrome

Basic cultural orientations such as Individualism and Collectivism are not static attributes of given societies, but reflect socioeconomic change. Economic development facilitates a shift toward some of the cultural syndromes associated with individualism and away from some of the cultural syndromes associated with collectivism, resulting in increased emphasis on individual freedom-focused valu...

Individualism and Economic Development: Evidence from Rainfall Data

This paper contributes to the economics of culture by introducing an instrument for individualism that is supported by economic theory. Extending a familiar model of risk sharing arrangements to incorporate optimal socialization decisions, I show that collectivist social ties are stronger in riskier environments. This result motivates the use of rainfall variation, a measure of exogenous agricu...

Individualism and Supervenience

Methodological Individualism and Generosity

Today a convergence between the fields of anthropology and economics has re-emerged after decades during which the dictates of methodological individualism, as strikingly elucidated by Kenneth Arrow, had seriously limited and hampered effective scholarship in studies of economic and social development in developing countries. A new generation of development economists represented by Spolaori an...