PsychologyGeet
Sign in Create a free account

Blog

Growing up in India

Development research, read against the households it happens in.

Written by Asst. Prof. Geetika Rai. For general readers · researchers.

What this covers

Most of what a psychology textbook says about attachment, adolescence and family was established on Western, nuclear-family samples. Indian research on the same questions exists and is published — often in journals no search engine surfaces well. This is the section closest to my own research, and it is where I read that work against the households it actually describes.

Pick a post

Post The angle
Attachment in a joint family A theory built on one caregiver, read in a house with four. Read →
Why fifteen is difficult Development, not defiance — written for parents. not written yet
The WEIRD problem Why a finding from 200 American undergraduates may not describe your cohort. not written yet

Attachment in a joint family

A theory built on one caregiver, read in a house with four.

Attachment is one of the most examined ideas in developmental psychology, and one of the most confidently taught. It is also, almost entirely, built on households that look nothing like the one many of my students grew up in. This is the area my own research sits in, and it is where I am least willing to repeat a textb...

Read more on this → 8 Aug 2026

Other subjects

Psychology myths Things almost everyone believes, that the evidence settled years ago
UGC NET and SET Preparing for the eligibility exams, without the guesswork
Careers in psychology Routes, regulation, and what the work is actually like
Student mental health Exam pressure, and what helps — for students and parents
Reading research How to read a paper properly, and where Indian work is published
Concepts explained The ideas students reliably get stuck on, one at a time
Teaching psychology What lands in a room, what does not, and why

Back to the blog index