1.11 The major objectives of cross-cultural psychology.

An important objective in the study of ethnic, cultural and national groups is to determine the validity of salient results and theories. To what extent are commonly accepted Western psychological theories actually transferable to other societies and cultures? Dawson (1971) suggested that the importance of cross-cultural research lies in the ability to evaluate the broader universal validity of psychological theories. More recently Segall, Dasen, Berry and Poortinga (1999) suggested that we should not consider any psychological principles as transferable in the absence of valid cross-cultural assessments.

Berry and Dasen (1974) outlined the major objectives for cross-cultural psychology. The first was called the “transport and test” goal where researchers ascertain whether established theories and research findings are valid in other cultural settings. The ultimate goal is to establish universal theories valid for all human beings. However, to reach such universal goals we have to start with what we know in our own culture and then test the validity of these research conclusions in the cross-cultural context. In that process it is also necessary to evaluate what is unique, and in particular the psychological variability and cultural specificity not apparent from our own cultural experience. If we can’t replicate common psychological research findings from our own society what are the reasons? For example in human development adolescents typically go through a turbulent period known as “storm und drang”. An important question could be posed whether adolescents in all societies go through a similar developmental process and whether there are unique cultural variations? The final goal of cross-cultural psychology is to integrate what is universal and that which is culturally specific into a more broadly based universal psychology transferable to all cultures. However, whether it is possible to develop universal laws of human behavior is a conclusion that not all investigators accept (Boesch, 1996).

1.12 The ethnocentrism of Psychology.

Ethnocentrism is ubiquitous in the world. It affects preferential judgments of every kind including evaluations of religion, ideology, and culture. Children already at a very young age have preferences for their own cultural symbols, and view the world through the lenses of their internalized cultural values. Since ethnocentrism is at best a simplification it leads to many errors of judgment. Evaluating all important perspectives from that of one’s own culture distorts the truth about other people, and does not take into account the full complexity of other cultures and societies. Unfortunately ethnocentrism must necessarily also affect cross-cultural psychology. The very choice of what we study is based on the knowledge developed in our own culture, and most cross-cultural research choices seeks to expand that knowledge into other groups and societies. Indigenous psychology would argue that topics not studied in the dominant Western based cross-cultural psychology are salient in other cultures. The psychological assessments we make are often based on concepts and instruments that have culturally specific meaning, and can only be translated at the risk of introducing concepts of little or no importance to other cultures. It requires careful translation as well as some evidence of cultural relevance before cross-cultural researchers can validly apply psychological assessments from one culture to another. Likewise the development of psychological theories in general is universally based on Western thought and data. Research based on Western theories applied in other cultures may contain ethnocentric bias and error.

However, these biases can be reduced by following careful procedures, and by inclusion of diverse cultures in the data base. Scientists are not immune from cultural bias and must be on alert for ethnocentric distortion in translation and conceptual development. Replication is needed to establish the validity of any psychological construct, and since times are changing psychological models must respond to these ubiquitous developments. Only over the long run through careful replication work can we be assured of a valid and reliable cross-cultural discipline. In recent decades some researchers have sought to develop a psychology from non-Western approaches. Although only modest research has been completed the development of indigenous psychological models may gather steam in the future (Sinha, 1997). We will discuss this approach in later chapters.