Topic Two (a): Theoretical and Methodological issues
for the study of psychology and culture 

I - Theoretical Issues surrounding culture and psychology

Various Perspectives on the study of psychology and culture

Kuhn (1970) suggests that understanding science and psychology
is done in relation to various worldviews. Paradigms or perspectives
of science built up like cultural world-views, the cultures of science.

E.g.,                      Necker Cube   

"Emic-Etic dispute" is central to the issue of perspective

 Following Pike (1967), John Berry has described the Emic and Etic orientations.

Emic refers to 'culture-specific' aspects of psychology or experience

Etic refers to universal or 'culture-general' aspects.

In Psychology there is a parallel debate over personality
as being best known in idiographic vs. nomothetic terms.

 Berry et al's Figure 9-3

 Goals or interests are contrasting between these views

Eg., Lawfulness (universal)         vs.     understanding and expression

and causal explanation

 Figures 10-1         & 10-2    

Types of inferred antecedents can also be considered when delineating the views of:
Absolutism, Universalism, Relativism.(  Berry et al, Table 10.1)

 

Absolutist-not concerned with ethnocentrism
or seeing people in their own terms; imposed etic

Universalist- basic processes but culture specific
manifestations; derived etic

Relativist- avoid ethnocentrism and
see people in their terms; emics

 Nature vs. Nurture is also an important issue here where often the absolutiststs and universalists may place more emphasis on nature while the relativist is likely to place emphasis on nurture.

 

Conceptions of culture will have an impact on the type of studies carried out including the methods.
Recall that from Tylor (1871), culture is seen as one of the earliest definitions.
We also see many others definitions ranging from: Descriptive, Historical (traditions), Normative (rules), Psychological, Structural (organized pattern, Genetic (origin of culture).  

 

II. Contemporary Theory and Methods in Cross-Cultural Psychology

Berry et al. (1992) provide several definitions making use of
culture-"the shared way of life of a group of people" and
its causal relationships to behaviour and cultural experience,
with a focus on the generalizability of studies that may be
used to understand cultural change.

 

This is for the goal of testing hypotheses about people,
the universal validity of psychological theories.

Theories - systems of thought give rise to

Hypotheses - specific statements of what to expect (predictions)

Hypotheses are disconfirmed (refuted) by observations (data)
but
Positivism suggests that verification gives rise to proof.
(this is a logical mistake according to Sir Karl Popper)

Other goals are revealed as:

1.     Test and transport - take a present theory or test and transport
it to another culture. E.g., "practice makes perfect" testing
the role of practice on remembering across different cultures.

 

2.     Explore and discover - Sometimes, 'failures' in the first type
of study become 'discoveries' of differences. Other times
keep eyes (and mind) open to uncover new phenomena
that vary cross-culturally or cross-nationally.

 

3.     Integrate - to assemble various studies and theories into
a grand theory or framework of knowledge that accounts
for the similarities and differences observed across cultures.
To generate a universal theory of psychology.

 

 

Research focuses on behavioural, biological, and ecological variables

 

Berry's Eco-cultural Model

Related forms of study (common to anthropology)

Ethnology - understand patterns, institutions,
dynamics and changes of cultures, trying to
understand implicit cultural interpretations

Ethnography - descriptive of explicit culture
based upon field reports or archives

 

 Designing cross-cultural studies

Berry et al. (1992): Seldom use the "Controlled Experiment"
across cultures, but still use the language of such studies.

Independent variable -> Dependent variables.
E.g., Taken at birth          Cultural Identification
                                             Adjustment, Esteem, ...

Obviously these types of studies cannot be done for ethical reasons,
so true experimentation, which is the best way to determine causes, cannot be done.

Cross-Cultural psychologists are then are left with quasi experiments or correlational studies
(which do not provide causal statements) or "path analysis" to infer causal relationships based upon correlations among variables.

As such it is difficult to "rule-out" all possible explanations (causes) so cross-cultural psychologists make use of:

Four strategies to eliminate competing alternatives:

          1) a priori selection of participants from across 'societies' or 'cultures'

          2) using a aggregate dependent variables: two + scores into one.

          3) use of statistical analyses to 'eliminate' the effects of "irrelevant variables"

          4) multiple measures: self-report, interview, analyses of life histories.

 Make use of convergent and discriminant validation where various studies of methods support each other or conflict with each other.

 Based upon such studies cross-cultural psychologists infer antecedents of behaviours

and attempt to test hypotheses derived from theories about those antecedents or causes.

 

Origins from Psychological Anthropology
(back to history)

Cultural Psychology
and its divergence from Cross-cultural psychology.