Occupational therapists have agreed that culture can affect therapy by influencing such factors as acceptance of a physical disability, attitude to the sick role, and perceived pain. Occupational therapists however, seem to have ignored the fact that culture also affects factors that influence learning. Learning can be a critical component of paediatric occupational therapy; therefore, it would seem desirable if not necessary for therapists who work with children from different cultural groups to be aware of the cultural variations in those characteristics that influence learning. With this knowledge, therapists would be able to develop strategies that would complement the unique characteristics of each child and ensure effective therapy This paper supports this argument. It introduces therapists to the research literature on the cultural variations in motivational style, cognitive style, human relational style and social interaction and discusses how the literature could be used to develop more effective therapy
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BanusB. (1971). The developmental therapist. Thorofare, N.J.: Charles B. Slack.
2.
BerryJ. (1966). Temne and Eskimo perceptual skills. International Journal of Psychology, 1, 207–229.
3.
BloomB. (1976). Human characteristics and school learning. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.
4.
BrophyJ.GoodT. (1974). Teacher-student relationships: Cause and consequences. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
5.
ByersP.ByersH. (1972). Nonverbal communication and the education of children. In CazdenC.JohnV.HymesD. (Eds.), Function of language in the classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.
6.
CoatesB. (1972). White adult behavior toward black and white children. Child Development, 43, 143–154.
7.
CrowlT.MacGinitieW. (1974). The influence of student's speech characteristics on teachers' evaluations of oral answers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 66, 304–308.
8.
DeVosG. (1968). Achievement and innovation in culture and personality. In NorbeckE.Price-WilliamsD.McCordW. (Eds.), A study of personality: An inter-disciplinary appraisal. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
9.
FowlerH.FowlerF. (1931). The concise Oxford dictionary of current English. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
10.
GallimoreR.BoggsJ.JordanC. (1974). Culture behavior and education: A study of Hawaiian-Americans. Beverly Hills: Gage.
11.
GallimoreR.WeissL.FinneyR. (1974). Cultural differences in delay of gratification: A problem of behavior classification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 72–80.
12.
G. & C. Merriam Company. (1961). Webster's third new international dictionary of the English language. Springfield: Author.
13.
GoodT.BrophyJ. (1978). Looking in classrooms (2nd ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
14.
GrayT. (1975). A bicultural approach to the issue of achievement motivation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University.
15.
HernandezN. (1973). Variables affecting achievement of middle school Mexican-American students. Review of Educational Research, 43, 1–39.
16.
JamiesonM. (1982). The immigrant child and adjustment to learning in a second culture. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Alberta.
17.
KaganS.BurielR. (1977). Field dependence-independence and Mexican-American culture and education. In MartinezJ. (Ed.), Chicane psychology. New York: Academic Press.
18.
MacArthurR. (1975). Differential ability patterns: Inuit, Nsenga and Canadian whites. In BerryJ.LonnerW. (Eds.), Applied cross-cultural psychology. Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger, B.V.
19.
McClellandD.C. (Ed.). (1975). Studies in motivation. New York: Appleton.
20.
McClellandD.AtkinsonJ.ClarkR.LowellE. (1953). The achievement motive. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
21.
PicheG.MichlinM.RubinD.SullivanA. (1977). Effects of dialect-ethnicity, social class, and quality of written compositions on teachers' subjective evaluations of children. Communication Monographs, 44, 60–72.
22.
RamirezM.CastanedaA. (1974). Cultural democracy, bicognitive development and education. New York: Academic Press.
23.
RamirezM.Price-WilliamsD.R. (1976). Achievement motivation in children of three ethnic groups in the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 7, 49–60.
24.
RosenthalR.JacobsonL. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils' intellectual development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
25.
RubovitsP.MaehrM. (1973). Pygmalion black and white. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25, 219–226.
26.
SandersM.ScholzJ.KaganS. (1976). Three social motives and field-independence-dependence in Anglo American and Mexican American children. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 7, 451–462.
27.
TaylorM. (1979). Race, sex and the expression of self-fulfilling prophecies in a laboratory teaching situation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 897–912.
28.
VersluysH. (1977). Psychological adjustment to physical disability. In TromblyC.ScottA. (Eds.), Occupational therapy for physical dysfunction. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
29.
WileyM.EskilsonA. (1978). Why did you learn in school today? Teachers' perceptions of causality. Sociology of Education, 51, 261–269.
30.
WitkinH. (1976). A cognitive-style approach to cross-cultural research. International Journal of Psychology, 2, 233–250.
31.
WitkinH. (1974). Cognitive styles across cultures. In BerryJ.DasenP. (Eds.), Cultural and cognition, London: Methuen & Co.
32.
WitkinH.DykR.FatersonH.GoodenoughD.KarpS. (1962). Psychological differentiation. New York: Wiley.
33.
WitkinH.GoodenoughD. (1976). Field dependence and interpersonal behavior. Princeton, N.J.: Educational Testing Service.
34.
YuA.Y. (1981). The implications of language, culture, social class, and cognitive style in higher cognitive processes: A cross-cultural developmental study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Alberta.
