ABSTRACT
What does this volume have to offer the reader? What is it about? It is about human development in family and cultural context. It is about the development of competence and the development of the self, two important spheres of human development. It is about patterns of similarities and differences in these spheres. It is also about systematic changes in family, self, and human competence in conjunction with social change and in particular with socioeconomic development. I first stress the variability that is notable in self and competence. However, I then look into commonality or lines of convergence that are apparent or that can be predicted, given the global changes in lifestyles that include common features, such as urbanization. Thus, this book attempts to provide an understanding into a number of complex and interrelated topics that are of importance to us all in our ever-changing global society. Additionally, it aims to shed light on these multifaceted human phenomena from a cultural and cross-cultural psychological perspective.
