Written Assignment Unit 1

Understanding Culture’s Role in Shaping

Development Across the Lifespan: A

Synthesis of Motivational, Biosocial, and

Life Course Approaches

Author’s Name Redacted

Behavioral Health, University of the People

HS 3610 - Human Development in a Global Perspective

Dr. Tonya Tate

November 19, 2025

factors. Culture not only shapes the values but also structures people’s perspectives on

opportunities, constraints, and pathways throughout their lives. Through this week’s readings

materials of Heckhausen, Wrosch, and Schulz’s (2010) motivational theory of lifespan

development, Halfon & Forrest’s (2018) Life Course Health Development (LCHD) framework,

Harris and McDade’s (2018) biosocial model of developmental processes, and Bernardi,

Huinink, and Settersten’s (2019) Life Course Cube, we can have in-depth insights into the way

culture influence personal agency, social structures, and biophysical mechanisms to predict

developmental outcomes.

Argument 1: Culture Shapes Control Beliefs, Goal

Setting, and Health Development.

Heckhausen et al. (2010) proposed that the selection of goals and the use of primary and

secondary control strategies are central to adaptive development. Interestingly, these strategies

are embedded in cultural norms that instruct what types of goals are valued, how the primary

goals are interpreted, and when goals should be pursued or disengaged. Primary control is highly

valued in individualistic societies because people are expected to take the initiative, claim their

own agency, and aim for personal achievements, whereas collective cultures could place more

emphasis on secondary control strategies, such as keeping an eye on one's own impulses to

maintain mutual harmony or prioritize the group over individual goals (Heckhausen et al., 2010).

Nonetheless, Markus & Kitayama (2003); Morling & Evered (2006) argued that the cultural

relativity of primary control endeavour has an impact on the way people from interdependent

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cultures choose goals to be more community-oriented or to maintain a sense of control in the

immediate social group. Therefore, it’s essential to understand the role of different degrees of

interdependent versus independent socialization in individuals’ perception of achievable

opportunities and the dynamics of different primary and secondary control strategies in different

cultural contexts (Ashman et al., 2006; Cheng, 2000).

Furthermore, the LCHD framework of Halfon & Forrest (2018) builds on this by articulating

seven principles that describe how health develops over the life course in dynamic, culturally

embedded ways. In the ‘Unfolding’ principle, according to Henrich (2015), as humans evolved,

cultural information and practices began to accumulate and produce cultural adaptations.

Cultural evolution can generate adaptations (i.e., religions, markets, science) that both improve

function and increase the selective pressure on our brains to effectively navigate these

increasingly complex cultural forms (Halfon & Forrest, 2018).

In the ‘Plasticity’ principle, health development phenotypes are systematically adjustable and are

activated by evolution to enhance adaptability to diverse environments. Heredity transmits the

evolutionary signals (e.g., environmental challenges, opportunities, barriers, and constraints)

through genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and cultural dimensions (Jablonka & Lamb, 2014).

Argument 2: Cultural Contexts Influence Physiological

Mechanisms Through Biosocial Pathways.

Harris and McDade (2018) show that social and cultural environments regulate physiological

systems. Perceived environmental threats trigger cortisol release, which returns to baseline once

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the external danger passes (Gruenewald et al., 2004). However, long-term exposure to adverse

conditions can adjust physiological set points (Seeman et al., 2001). Furthermore, lower

socioeconomic status, associated with persistent stress, correlates with elevated evening cortisol

(Cohen et al., 2006; DeSantis et al., 2007).

Cultures marked by inequality or chronic stressors often experience biological dysregulation,

producing poorer health outcomes across the lifespan. Low birth weight predicts higher adult

cortisol (Phillips et al., 2000), which negatively affects cognitive development and educational

attainment (Conley & Bennett, 2000; Figlio et al., 2014). While socioeconomic disadvantage had

a huge impact on health across generations, shared genetic factors partly explain the association

between education and health (Boardman et al., 2015; Okbay et al., 2016).

Blood pressure, a strong predictor of cardiovascular disease, traces from childhood into

adulthood (Berenson et al., 1995; Li et al., 2004). While early measures rarely show

hypertension, they identify individuals at risk of later disease and premature death (Nguyen et

al., 2011).

This biosocial perspective complements Heckhausen et al.’s motivational model, emphasizing

that agency and control strategies are moderated by cultural contexts, while biological processes

shape life trajectories and feed back into social environments.

Argument 3: Culture Enables Development Through

Interdependent Life Course Structures.

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Bernardi, Huinink, and Settersten (2019) introduce the ‘Life Course Cube’, a multidimensional

analytical framework that highlights how human development is shaped simultaneously by time,

domain, and structural interdependencies, whereas culture is central across all three dimensions.

Time Axis: Culture sets expectations for the timing of life transitions, such as when to start

school, marry, have children, retire, etc. These timing norms influence how a person’s future

anticipations (“shadows of the future”) and past experiences (“shadows of the past”) navigate

their life trajectories.

Life Domain Axis: Culture suggests which life domains matter most (e.g., work vs. family) and

how these domains interrelate with goals, resources, and behaviors in other domains. For

example, in some cultures, family liabilities may dominate career decisions, whereas in others,

professional achievement may take priority. These cultural domain interactions influence role

conflict, stress, and resource allocation.

Level Axis: This axis comprises individual-level factors (personal resources and behaviors),

biological-level influences (health and physiology), and supra-individual structures (institutions,

laws, and economics). For instance, if labor market opportunities and requirements change, the

redistribution of resources by the welfare system (e.g., increases in health expenses and

retirement ages) and the expectations and demands of care in families and communities.

The Life Course Cube complements the insights from Heckhausen et al. and Harris & McDade

by illustrating how culture influences not only on micro levels but also the timing and life course

turning points in macro levels such as economic factors, labor markets, welfare policies, and

cultural cues (Hagestad & Dykstra, 2016; Leisering, 2003; K. Mayer & Huinink, 1990; K. U.

Mayer & Schoepflin, 1989).

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