Theoretical and methodological challenges

Abstract

What is cross-cultural social psychology and why does it matter? Having a contextual comparison not only leads to a better understanding of conclusions of traditional social psychology, which have been explored primarily in Western societies, but also expands our view and comprehension beyond borders. However, achieving these goals is easier said than done, and the base from which we want to build is not as sturdy as we would hope. As in all areas of psychology, cross-cultural social psychology needs to ask fundamental questions about the replicability of our results and the depth of our theory. Chapter 1 will go over a brief history of cross-cultural social psychology, focusing on the common theme of individualism versus collectivism dichotomy as a pillar of theory in cross-cultural psychology. This will be followed by addressing the methodological challenges of cross-cultural comparisons that hinder the verifiability of findings. Chapter 1: A Review of the Field 2 2 What is cross-cultural psychology? Social psychology investigates how social interactions shape how we think, feel, and act, that is, how our existence as social animals shapes our cognitive reality. Cross-cultural social psychology looks at how cultures further influence these processes. What is culture? Simply put, culture is a shared system, produced and perpetuated by a group. To further our understanding, we look to others in the field who define culture as the following: “The collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from another” (Hofstede, 2001, p. 9) “... a unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life.” (Matsumoto & Juang, 2008, p. 12) “... it [culture] represents a coalescence of discrete behavioral norms and cognitions shared by individuals within some definable population that are distinct from those shared within other populations. These normative beliefs and behaviors provide resources for realizing individual and collective goals, and so are often institutionalized in a variety of formal and informal ways. Moreover, there exist means for transmitting beliefs and behaviors to new members of the cultural population, so that the norms defining a culture may persist over very long periods of time.” (Lehman, Chiu, & Schaller, 2004 p. 690) Cross-cultural social psychology (CCSP) is in the fabric of social psychology itself, the influences of which are defined as culture aligned with what social psychologists seek to Chapter 1: A Review of the Field 3 3 explore. However, CCSP is differentiated by comparing two or more different cultural contexts or groups. Cultural groups are not necessary defined by national boarders, cultural groups also include people differentiate by age, gender or religion. All psychological processes take place in a cultural context; traditionally that context in psychological research is North American and Western European college-educated white people. This limitation has seen its fair share of criticism in the overdependence on Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) societies as samples in scientific research (Arnett, 2008; Henrich, Heine, & Norenzayan, 2010), CCSP looks to expand this. Beyond just including more groups, CCSP investigates if, how, and why different cultural contexts influence psychological processes. It is a particularly important research topic today because social psychology research faces a replicability crisis. This crisis came out of work that showed that a significant majority of results in social psychology could not be replicated (Open Science Collaboration, 2015). From this crisis grew a debate that asked why this is the case and what we can do about it. Especially relevant is the spotlight on the importance of context or boundary conditions (Van Bavel, Mende-Siedlecki, Brady, & Reinero, 2016) an important aspect of that being culture. From this, it is recognized that the field does not know the full extent of cultural context’s influences on psychological processes or even how to measure cultural differences. The challenges brought to light from the replicability crisis are helpful in understanding where cross-cultural psychology belongs in the framework of social psychology – namely, the focus on differences in replication environments and the question of applicability and replicability across the world. Therefore, cross-cultural psychology addresses the fundamental question: do our theories have boundary conditions that are culturally bound? Additionally, the cross-cultural perspective facilitates confronting the blind spots in the primarily western perspective of psychological concepts, which increase limitations in theory and approach (Chen, 2010). Chapter 1: A Review of the Field 4 4 The inherent value of cross-cultural psychology for social psychology as a whole is apparent but CCSP has some unique challenges compared to other sub-fields of social psychology that must be addressed. For example, because culture is embedded in specific human psychological contexts, there is difficulty establishing causal relationships. Furthermore, due to research conducted in different contexts there are more extensive problems with cross-cultural bias, which can broadly be defined as “any systematic source of distortion that challenges the validity of cross-cultural comparison” (Leung & van de Vijver, 2008, p. 148). Without addressing these issues, the field cannot adequately address relevant questions. As Leung and van de Vijver (2008) proclaimed “...causal inferences in cross cultural research are most convincing when supported by diverse evidence based on a sound theoretical basis, multiple source of data, different research methods, and explicit refutation of alternative interpretations” (p. 145). In completing our understanding of CCSP we should differentiate it from other related approaches to the study of culture and psychology. Cultural psychology focuses on understanding the underlying meaning of cultural phenomena, while cross-cultural psychology focuses on causal inferences of culture (Leung & van de Vijver, 2008). Indigenous psychology identifies unique psychological processes without Western concepts as a starting point and assumes some lack of comparability, contrasting with cross-cultural psychology, which focuses on the comparison between groups. Intercultural psychology focuses on understanding the interaction between different groups in comparison contrary to CCSP that compares differences between groups (Smith, Fischer, Vignoles, & Bond, 2013). In the next section, I will go over a brief history of the field of CCSP, followed by a review and critique of fundamental theories and conclude with a closer look at methodological challenges. Chapter 1: A Review of the Field 5