Collaboration or negotiation: two ways of interacting suggest how shared thinking develops. (October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mejía-Arauz, Rebeca; Rogoff, Barbara; Dayton, Andrew; Henne-Ochoa, Richard
• Is Part Of: Current opinion in psychology. Volume 23(2018)
• Page Start: 117
• Page End: 123
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Subjects: Psychology -- Periodicals; 150.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.02.017
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2352-250X

Abstract

Highlights: People share thinking with each other in 2 major ways: negotiating or collaborating. Negotiation assumes separate individuals, collaboration assumes social engagement. Collaboration involves fluently attuned participants oriented toward a shared goal. Cultural communities differ in prevalence of collaboration vs negotiation. Family and community practices contribute to children's collaboration and negotiation. Abstract : This paper contrasts two ways that shared thinking can be conceptualized: as negotiation, where individuals join their separate ideas, or collaboration, as people mutually engage together in a unified process, as an ensemble. We argue that these paradigms are culturally based, with the negotiation model fitting within an assumption system of separate entities — an assumption system we believe to be common in psychology and in middle-class European American society — and the collaboration model fitting within a holistic worldview that appears to be common in Indigenous-heritage communities of the Americas. We discuss cultural differences in children's interactions — as negotiation or collaboration — that suggest how these distinct paradigms develop.