According to evolutionary psychology, socialization goals integrate the parental ethnotheories, requirements that enable the rapid adoption of care and socialization strategies which were functional in the recent past. Aiming to explore this approach, this study compared the goals of two different samples, living in different contexts. A total of 76 Brazilian and 52 Norwegian mothers were interviewed concerning socialization goals. Goal descriptors were selected in order of appearance and analyzed using the software Analyse d'évocations. Approximately half of the descriptors that reached minimum frequency were shared between the two samples, indicating that ideals are shared in urban societies, though descriptors were assigned different priorities. The most significant differences were related to individualism/collectivism and are congruent with ecological differences between the two contexts. These results may be related to the cultural contrasts between societies with different trajectories, also related to current socioeconomic conditions, compatible with the evolutionary perspective.
Evolutionary Psychology; Goals; Socialization
