Cross-cultural psychology

Cross-cultural psychology is the branch of psychology that deals with psychology across different cultures. Various definitions of the field are given in Berry, Poortinga, Segall and Dasen (1992), including:

"the scientific study of human behaviour and its transmission, taking into account the ways in which behaviours are shaped and influenced by social and cultural forces" (Segall,Dasen, Berry & Poortinga, 1990) (cited in Berry, Poortinga, Segall and Dasen,1992, p1) "the empirical study of members of various cultural groups who have had different experiences that lead to predictable and significant differences in behaviour" (Brislin Lonner & Thorndike, 1973; cited in Berry, Poortinga, Segall and Dasen, 1992, p1) Cross-cultural psychology "is concerned with the systematic study of behaviour and experience as it occurs in different cultures" (Triandis, 1980; cited in Berry, Poortinga, Segall and Dasen, 1992, p1)

These authors define culture as "the shared way of life of a group of people" (Berry, Poortinga, Segall and Dasen, 1992, p1). They also outline various aims and goals of cross-cultural psychology, including a challenge to the limited cultural perspective that may result if one only studies cultural variables within one's own culture.

Early work in cross-cultural psychology was done, as Cole (1996) explains, by W._H._R._Rivers, in anthropological study of people in the Torres Straits. The chief experimental psychologist on this expedition, Rivers studied visual acuity.

Celebrated work in cross-cultural psychology was done by Hofstede (cited in Smith & Bond, 1993) on which different cultures were compared on four dimensions - power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity-feminity and individualism-collectivism. It is quite common for cross-cultural psychologists to take one of two possible approaches - the etic approach, which emphasises similarities of cultures, and the emic approach, which emphasises differences between cultures (Smith & Bond, 1982). Generally speaking, it is received wisdom that,as one travels further east, cultures will become more collectivist, although challenges have been made to this claim.

Various factors on which cultures have been compared are discussed by Berry et al., including child-rearing, personality differences in variables such as locus of control and gender development. These authors challenge the work of Hofstede, proposing that alternative question measures to assess individualism and collectivism should be used to the ones that he proposed. Indeed, the individualisim-collectivism debate has itself proven to be problematic, with Sinha and Tripathi (1994) arguing that strong individualistic and collectivistic orientations may co-exist in the same culture (they discuss India in this connection). (See Sinha and Tripathi, Chapter Eight of Kim et al., 1994).

Best and Williams have looked at different cultures in terms of their attitudes to ageing. They have found that people in Malaysia and South American countries such as Venezuela tend to have more positive views of ageing than people in various other countries, such as Canada, Finland, Pakistan, Poland, Wales or Zimbabwe.

References: Berry, J.W., Poortinga, Y.H.,Segall, M.H. & Dasen, P.R. (1992). Cross-cultural Psychology: Research and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 0-521-37761-7

Best & Williams, in Pandavey, J., Sinha, D., Bhawal, D.P.S. "Asian Contributions to Cross-Cultural Psychology". London: Sage

Cole, M. (1996). Cross-cultural Psychology: A Once and Future Discipline. Cambridge, MS: Harvard University Press

Kim, U. et al. (Eds.) Individualism and collectivism : theory, method, and applications London: Sage

Smith, M. & Bond, P.B. (1993). Social Psychology across Cultures. Harvester Wheatsheaf

Further Reading:

• Pandavey, J., Sinha, D., Bhawal, D.P.S. "Asian Contributions to Cross-Cultural Psychology". London: Sage

• Shiraev, E. & Levy, D. (2004). Cross-cultural Psychology: Critical Thinking and Contemporary Applications. (Second Edition). Boston: Pearson. ISBN: 0-205-38612-1