CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY
1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. WHAT IS CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY? .................................................................................................. 1
1.1.1. Definitions ................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1.2. Aims of cross-cultural psychology ............................................................................................... 2
1.1.3. Ethnocentrism ............................................................................................................................ 2
1.2. THEMES OF DEBATE .............................................................................................................................. 3
1.3. INTERPRETATIVE POSITIONS..................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.1. Culture-comparative psychology ................................................................................................. 3
1.3.2. Cultural psychology .................................................................................................................... 4
1.3.3. Indigenous psychology ............................................................................................................... 4
1.4. DESIGNING CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH .....................................................................................................5
1.4.1. Sampling cultures ....................................................................................................................... 5
1.4.2. Qualitative and quantitative approaches..................................................................................... 5
1.5. DEALING WITH THREATS IN INTERPRETATION ...............................................................................................5
1.6. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................... 6
2. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................................... 6
2.1. CULTURE AS CONTEXT FOR DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................. 6
2.2. MODES OF TRANSMISSION...................................................................................................................... 7
2.2.1. Enculturation and socialisation ................................................................................................... 7
2.2.2. Culture and gender..................................................................................................................... 7
2.3. INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD ............................................................................................................ 10
2.4. CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE ............................................................................................................. 11
2.5. ADULTHOOD ..................................................................................................................................... 13
2.5.1. Early adulthood: mating and partnership ...................................................................................13
2.5.2. Middle adulthood: Generativity ................................................................................................ 14
2.5.3. Late adulthood: Integrity .......................................................................................................... 15
2.5.4. Applied perspective on development ......................................................................................... 15
3. SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR ................................................................................................................... 16
3.1. SOCIAL CONTEXT AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR ................................................................................................. 16
3.2. VALUES ........................................................................................................................................... 17
3.2.1. Hofstede: dimensions at a group level ....................................................................................... 18
3.2.2. Triandis: individualism vs. collectivism ....................................................................................... 18
3.2.3. Schwartz .................................................................................................................................. 19
3.2.4. Inglehart & Baker ..................................................................................................................... 21
3.2.5. Leung & Bond .......................................................................................................................... 23
3.3. SOCIAL COGNITION ............................................................................................................................ 24
3.3.1. Conformity ............................................................................................................................... 24
3.3.2. Attribution (social-cultural conition) .......................................................................................... 24
3.3.3. Social loafing vs. social aiming .................................................................................................. 24
3.3.4. Wester need for uniqueness? .................................................................................................... 25
3.4. CULTURE AS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT .......................................................................................25
3.5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 25
4. PERSONALITY............................................................................................................................ 26
4.1. TRAIT DIMENSIONS ............................................................................................................................ 26
4.1.1. Conclusions of trait approach ....................................................................................................27
4.2. PERSON IN CONTEXT .......................................................................................................................... 28
4.3. SOME NON-WESTERN CONCEPTS .......................................................................................................... 29
4.4. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 29
5. EMOTIONS ............................................................................................................................... 30
5.1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 30
5.2. DIMENSIONAL APPROACHES .................................................................................................................. 30
1
, 5.2.1. Atlas of meaning ...................................................................................................................... 30
5.2.2. Problems of cross-cultural research: between imposition and incommensurability .......................31
5.2.3. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 32
5.3. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 33
5.3.1. Ekman ......................................................................................................................................33
5.3.2. How to explain cultural differences? ..........................................................................................33
5.4. EMOTION AND LANGUAGE .................................................................................................................... 34
5.5. EMOTION COMPONENTS ...................................................................................................................... 34
5.5.1. Situational antecedents ............................................................................................................ 35
5.5.2. Appraisals ................................................................................................................................ 35
5.5.3. Physiological reactions ............................................................................................................. 35
5.5.4. Subjective experience (core affect) ............................................................................................ 35
5.5.5. Action tendencies ..................................................................................................................... 35
5.5.6. Vocal expressions ..................................................................................................................... 35
5.5.7. Regulation ............................................................................................................................... 35
5.6. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 35
6. ASSESSING THE MEANING OF EMOTION WORDS IN A THEORY-BASED WAY: THE GRID INSTRUMENT ...... 36
6.1. GENERAL AIM ................................................................................................................................... 36
6.2. I. THEORETICAL RATIONALE ................................................................................................................... 36
6.2.1. (Cross-) cultural perspective...................................................................................................... 36
6.2.2. Psychological perspective .......................................................................................................... 37
6.2.3. Linguistic perspective ............................................................................................................... 38
6.3. II. CONSTRUCTION OF GRID INSTRUMENT ................................................................................................ 38
6.3.1. Selection of emotion terms (24) ................................................................................................ 38
6.3.2. Selection of emotion features (144) .......................................................................................... 38
6.3.3. Response scale ......................................................................................................................... 39
6.3.4. Web-based survey .................................................................................................................... 39
6.3.5. Samples ................................................................................................................................... 39
6.4. III. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 39
6.4.1. Universalistic psychological perspective .................................................................................... 39
6.4.2. (Cross-)cultural perspective ...................................................................................................... 40
6.5. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................................... 40
7. LANGUAGE............................................................................................................................... 41
7.1. LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY ......................................................................................................................... 41
7.1.1. CODING AND CATEGORIZATION OF COLOUR .............................................................................................. 42
7.1.2. SPATIAL ORIENTATION ......................................................................................................................... 43
7.2. UNIVERSALITY IN LANGUAGE ................................................................................................................ 44
8. COGNITION .............................................................................................................................. 45
8.1. HISTORICAL LEGACY ............................................................................................................................45
8.2. GENERAL INTELLIGENCE .......................................................................................................................45
8.2.1. The notion of “g” ...................................................................................................................... 45
8.2.2. Comparative studies ................................................................................................................. 45
8.2.3. Indigenous approaches..............................................................................................................47
8.3. COGNITIVE SYLES ............................................................................................................................... 47
8.4. COGNITION EAST AND WEST ................................................................................................................ 48
8.5. CONTEXTUALIZED COGNITION ............................................................................................................... 49
8.6. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 49
9. PERCEPTION ............................................................................................................................. 50
9.1. HISTORICAL ROOTS .............................................................................................................................50
9.2. SENSORY FUNCTIONS ..........................................................................................................................50
9.3. PERCEPTION OF PATTERNS AND FIGURES ...................................................................................................50
9.3.1. Visual illusions.......................................................................................................................... 51
9.3.2. 3D-/depth perception ............................................................................................................... 51
2
, 9.4. FACE RECOGNITION ............................................................................................................................52
9.5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 52
10. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY .................................................................. 53
10.1. CONCEPTIONS OF CULTURE ................................................................................................................... 53
10.1.1. Cultural evolution ................................................................................................................ 54
10.1.2. Cultural relativism ............................................................................................................... 55
10.1.3. Cultural universals ............................................................................................................... 55
10.2. ETHNOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................. 55
10.2.1. Ethnographic fieldwork ........................................................................................................ 56
10.2.2. Ethnographic archives.......................................................................................................... 56
10.3. COGNITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 57
10.4. RELIGION .........................................................................................................................................58
10.4.1. Religious knowledge takes precedence ................................................................................. 58
10.4.2. Sciende and religion are seperate domains ........................................................................... 58
10.4.3. Science takes precedence over religion ................................................................................. 59
10.5. CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................................59
11. EQUIVALENCE AND BIAS ......................................................................................................... 60
11.1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................. 60
11.2. A GENERAL ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................... 60
11.2.1. Relevance and representativeness ........................................................................................ 60
11.2.2. Psychometric modeling ........................................................................................................ 60
11.2.3. Nomological network ........................................................................................................... 61
11.2.4. Multitrait-multimethod approach......................................................................................... 61
11.3. LEVELS OF EQUIVALENCE ...................................................................................................................... 61
11.3.1. Functional equivalence ........................................................................................................ 61
11.3.2. Structural equivalence ......................................................................................................... 61
11.3.3. Metric equivalence .............................................................................................................. 62
11.3.4. Full score equivalence .......................................................................................................... 62
11.4. TYPES OF BIAS .................................................................................................................................. 62
11.4.1. The cultural specificity of the theoretical variable .................................................................. 62
11.4.2. Domain representation ........................................................................................................ 62
11.4.3. Method bias ........................................................................................................................ 63
11.4.4. Item bias ............................................................................................................................. 63
11.4.5. Bias and the level of inference .............................................................................................. 63
11.5. RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYTIC METHODS FOR DETECTING BIAS AND JUSTIFYING EQUIVALENCE .............................. 64
11.5.1. Nomological network ........................................................................................................... 64
11.5.2. Domain representation ........................................................................................................ 64
11.5.3. Psychometric modelling ....................................................................................................... 64
11.5.4. Multi-method approach ....................................................................................................... 64
11.6. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 64
12. ACCULTURATION .................................................................................................................. 65
12.1. DEFINITIONS AND FRAMEWORK..............................................................................................................65
12.2. THEORETICAL MODELS AND PERSPECTIVES................................................................................................ 66
12.3. ACCULTURATION PROCESSES ................................................................................................................ 68
12.4. ACCULTURATION OUTCOMES................................................................................................................ 68
12.4.1. Adjustment at school ........................................................................................................... 69
12.4.2. Adjustment at work ............................................................................................................. 69
12.5. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES ................................................................................................................... 69
12.6. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 70
13. INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS ................................................................................................... 71
13.1. INTERCULTURAL STRATEGIES.................................................................................................................. 71
13.2. MULTICULTURALISM ........................................................................................................................... 71
13.3. CENTRAL THEORIES: CONTACT THEORY AND ETHNOCENTRISM THEORY .............................................................. 72
3
, 13.4. KEY CONCEPTS: STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION ........................................................................... 73
13.4.1. Stereotypes .......................................................................................................................... 73
13.4.2. Prejudice .............................................................................................................................. 73
13.4.3. Discrimination ......................................................................................................................74
13.5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 74
4
1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. WHAT IS CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY? .................................................................................................. 1
1.1.1. Definitions ................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1.2. Aims of cross-cultural psychology ............................................................................................... 2
1.1.3. Ethnocentrism ............................................................................................................................ 2
1.2. THEMES OF DEBATE .............................................................................................................................. 3
1.3. INTERPRETATIVE POSITIONS..................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.1. Culture-comparative psychology ................................................................................................. 3
1.3.2. Cultural psychology .................................................................................................................... 4
1.3.3. Indigenous psychology ............................................................................................................... 4
1.4. DESIGNING CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH .....................................................................................................5
1.4.1. Sampling cultures ....................................................................................................................... 5
1.4.2. Qualitative and quantitative approaches..................................................................................... 5
1.5. DEALING WITH THREATS IN INTERPRETATION ...............................................................................................5
1.6. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................... 6
2. INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................................... 6
2.1. CULTURE AS CONTEXT FOR DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................................. 6
2.2. MODES OF TRANSMISSION...................................................................................................................... 7
2.2.1. Enculturation and socialisation ................................................................................................... 7
2.2.2. Culture and gender..................................................................................................................... 7
2.3. INFANCY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD ............................................................................................................ 10
2.4. CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE ............................................................................................................. 11
2.5. ADULTHOOD ..................................................................................................................................... 13
2.5.1. Early adulthood: mating and partnership ...................................................................................13
2.5.2. Middle adulthood: Generativity ................................................................................................ 14
2.5.3. Late adulthood: Integrity .......................................................................................................... 15
2.5.4. Applied perspective on development ......................................................................................... 15
3. SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR ................................................................................................................... 16
3.1. SOCIAL CONTEXT AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR ................................................................................................. 16
3.2. VALUES ........................................................................................................................................... 17
3.2.1. Hofstede: dimensions at a group level ....................................................................................... 18
3.2.2. Triandis: individualism vs. collectivism ....................................................................................... 18
3.2.3. Schwartz .................................................................................................................................. 19
3.2.4. Inglehart & Baker ..................................................................................................................... 21
3.2.5. Leung & Bond .......................................................................................................................... 23
3.3. SOCIAL COGNITION ............................................................................................................................ 24
3.3.1. Conformity ............................................................................................................................... 24
3.3.2. Attribution (social-cultural conition) .......................................................................................... 24
3.3.3. Social loafing vs. social aiming .................................................................................................. 24
3.3.4. Wester need for uniqueness? .................................................................................................... 25
3.4. CULTURE AS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSTRUCT .......................................................................................25
3.5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 25
4. PERSONALITY............................................................................................................................ 26
4.1. TRAIT DIMENSIONS ............................................................................................................................ 26
4.1.1. Conclusions of trait approach ....................................................................................................27
4.2. PERSON IN CONTEXT .......................................................................................................................... 28
4.3. SOME NON-WESTERN CONCEPTS .......................................................................................................... 29
4.4. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 29
5. EMOTIONS ............................................................................................................................... 30
5.1. INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 30
5.2. DIMENSIONAL APPROACHES .................................................................................................................. 30
1
, 5.2.1. Atlas of meaning ...................................................................................................................... 30
5.2.2. Problems of cross-cultural research: between imposition and incommensurability .......................31
5.2.3. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................. 32
5.3. FACIAL EXPRESSIONS ........................................................................................................................... 33
5.3.1. Ekman ......................................................................................................................................33
5.3.2. How to explain cultural differences? ..........................................................................................33
5.4. EMOTION AND LANGUAGE .................................................................................................................... 34
5.5. EMOTION COMPONENTS ...................................................................................................................... 34
5.5.1. Situational antecedents ............................................................................................................ 35
5.5.2. Appraisals ................................................................................................................................ 35
5.5.3. Physiological reactions ............................................................................................................. 35
5.5.4. Subjective experience (core affect) ............................................................................................ 35
5.5.5. Action tendencies ..................................................................................................................... 35
5.5.6. Vocal expressions ..................................................................................................................... 35
5.5.7. Regulation ............................................................................................................................... 35
5.6. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 35
6. ASSESSING THE MEANING OF EMOTION WORDS IN A THEORY-BASED WAY: THE GRID INSTRUMENT ...... 36
6.1. GENERAL AIM ................................................................................................................................... 36
6.2. I. THEORETICAL RATIONALE ................................................................................................................... 36
6.2.1. (Cross-) cultural perspective...................................................................................................... 36
6.2.2. Psychological perspective .......................................................................................................... 37
6.2.3. Linguistic perspective ............................................................................................................... 38
6.3. II. CONSTRUCTION OF GRID INSTRUMENT ................................................................................................ 38
6.3.1. Selection of emotion terms (24) ................................................................................................ 38
6.3.2. Selection of emotion features (144) .......................................................................................... 38
6.3.3. Response scale ......................................................................................................................... 39
6.3.4. Web-based survey .................................................................................................................... 39
6.3.5. Samples ................................................................................................................................... 39
6.4. III. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 39
6.4.1. Universalistic psychological perspective .................................................................................... 39
6.4.2. (Cross-)cultural perspective ...................................................................................................... 40
6.5. DISCUSSION ..................................................................................................................................... 40
7. LANGUAGE............................................................................................................................... 41
7.1. LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY ......................................................................................................................... 41
7.1.1. CODING AND CATEGORIZATION OF COLOUR .............................................................................................. 42
7.1.2. SPATIAL ORIENTATION ......................................................................................................................... 43
7.2. UNIVERSALITY IN LANGUAGE ................................................................................................................ 44
8. COGNITION .............................................................................................................................. 45
8.1. HISTORICAL LEGACY ............................................................................................................................45
8.2. GENERAL INTELLIGENCE .......................................................................................................................45
8.2.1. The notion of “g” ...................................................................................................................... 45
8.2.2. Comparative studies ................................................................................................................. 45
8.2.3. Indigenous approaches..............................................................................................................47
8.3. COGNITIVE SYLES ............................................................................................................................... 47
8.4. COGNITION EAST AND WEST ................................................................................................................ 48
8.5. CONTEXTUALIZED COGNITION ............................................................................................................... 49
8.6. CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................................................. 49
9. PERCEPTION ............................................................................................................................. 50
9.1. HISTORICAL ROOTS .............................................................................................................................50
9.2. SENSORY FUNCTIONS ..........................................................................................................................50
9.3. PERCEPTION OF PATTERNS AND FIGURES ...................................................................................................50
9.3.1. Visual illusions.......................................................................................................................... 51
9.3.2. 3D-/depth perception ............................................................................................................... 51
2
, 9.4. FACE RECOGNITION ............................................................................................................................52
9.5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 52
10. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY .................................................................. 53
10.1. CONCEPTIONS OF CULTURE ................................................................................................................... 53
10.1.1. Cultural evolution ................................................................................................................ 54
10.1.2. Cultural relativism ............................................................................................................... 55
10.1.3. Cultural universals ............................................................................................................... 55
10.2. ETHNOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................................. 55
10.2.1. Ethnographic fieldwork ........................................................................................................ 56
10.2.2. Ethnographic archives.......................................................................................................... 56
10.3. COGNITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 57
10.4. RELIGION .........................................................................................................................................58
10.4.1. Religious knowledge takes precedence ................................................................................. 58
10.4.2. Sciende and religion are seperate domains ........................................................................... 58
10.4.3. Science takes precedence over religion ................................................................................. 59
10.5. CONCLUSIONS ...................................................................................................................................59
11. EQUIVALENCE AND BIAS ......................................................................................................... 60
11.1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................. 60
11.2. A GENERAL ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK .................................................................................................... 60
11.2.1. Relevance and representativeness ........................................................................................ 60
11.2.2. Psychometric modeling ........................................................................................................ 60
11.2.3. Nomological network ........................................................................................................... 61
11.2.4. Multitrait-multimethod approach......................................................................................... 61
11.3. LEVELS OF EQUIVALENCE ...................................................................................................................... 61
11.3.1. Functional equivalence ........................................................................................................ 61
11.3.2. Structural equivalence ......................................................................................................... 61
11.3.3. Metric equivalence .............................................................................................................. 62
11.3.4. Full score equivalence .......................................................................................................... 62
11.4. TYPES OF BIAS .................................................................................................................................. 62
11.4.1. The cultural specificity of the theoretical variable .................................................................. 62
11.4.2. Domain representation ........................................................................................................ 62
11.4.3. Method bias ........................................................................................................................ 63
11.4.4. Item bias ............................................................................................................................. 63
11.4.5. Bias and the level of inference .............................................................................................. 63
11.5. RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYTIC METHODS FOR DETECTING BIAS AND JUSTIFYING EQUIVALENCE .............................. 64
11.5.1. Nomological network ........................................................................................................... 64
11.5.2. Domain representation ........................................................................................................ 64
11.5.3. Psychometric modelling ....................................................................................................... 64
11.5.4. Multi-method approach ....................................................................................................... 64
11.6. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................... 64
12. ACCULTURATION .................................................................................................................. 65
12.1. DEFINITIONS AND FRAMEWORK..............................................................................................................65
12.2. THEORETICAL MODELS AND PERSPECTIVES................................................................................................ 66
12.3. ACCULTURATION PROCESSES ................................................................................................................ 68
12.4. ACCULTURATION OUTCOMES................................................................................................................ 68
12.4.1. Adjustment at school ........................................................................................................... 69
12.4.2. Adjustment at work ............................................................................................................. 69
12.5. METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES ................................................................................................................... 69
12.6. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 70
13. INTERCULTURAL RELATIONS ................................................................................................... 71
13.1. INTERCULTURAL STRATEGIES.................................................................................................................. 71
13.2. MULTICULTURALISM ........................................................................................................................... 71
13.3. CENTRAL THEORIES: CONTACT THEORY AND ETHNOCENTRISM THEORY .............................................................. 72
3
, 13.4. KEY CONCEPTS: STEREOTYPES, PREJUDICE, DISCRIMINATION ........................................................................... 73
13.4.1. Stereotypes .......................................................................................................................... 73
13.4.2. Prejudice .............................................................................................................................. 73
13.4.3. Discrimination ......................................................................................................................74
13.5. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 74
4
