-

TransculturalprycholoUniversalityor diversrty?

U nti I fa i rly rece ntly, psych olog ica I

research paid little attention to the

influence of culture upon the human

behaviour and experience which it studied.

Times have changed. Andrew Stevenson

explores one way in which psychology can

move forward and incorporate cultural

awareness and sensitivity into itsfocus.

A psychologist lool<ing for culturaluniversals is searching for aspects of behav-iour or experience common to all culturalsettings. This univcrsalist approach to tran-scultural research (research looking at therelationship between culture and behav-iour) is often termed cross-culturalpsychology. Ps.ychologists who lool< forcultural universals tend to favour fwo theo-retical assumptions.

Ii.\,Y.r,

' .: . sychologists worldwide have been, tormented by questions about the

cultural universality of humanbehaviour and experience for

decadcs. For exarnple, in 1972, Deregowsl<i

asl<ed whether the perception of threedimensions in drawing is the same indifferent cultures. And in 1966 Piaget asl<ed

whether thinl<ing develops in children atthe same rate in different cultures.

AQA (A) Psychology Review

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Underpinning cross cultural psychologz is

an assumption of psychic unity. ln everyday

terms, this states that human diversity is

only sl<in deep. This suggests that differ-ences in psychological functioning (person-

ality traits, performance on perceptual tests)

and in social behaviour (courtship, atti-tudes) across cultures are merely superficial.

So if children in Mozarnbique remember

:!

TransculturalprycholoLJnivers alityor diversiry?

U nti I fa i rly rece ntly, psychol ogi ca I

research paid little attention to the

influence of culture upon the human

behaviour and experience which it studied.

Times have changed. Andrew Stevenson

explores one way in which psychology can

move forward and incorporate cultural

awareness and sensitivity into its focus.

A psychologist lool<ing for culturaluniversals is searching for aspecls ol'behav-iour or experience common to all culturalscttings. This universalist approach to tran-scultural research (research lool<ing at therelationship between culture and behav-iour) is often termed cross-culturalpsychology. Psychologists who look forcultural universals tend to tavour two theo-retical assumptions.

sychologists worldwide have beentormented by questions about thecultural universality of humanbchaviour and experience f'or

decadcs. For exanrplc, in 1972, Deregowsl<i

asl<ed whether thc perception of threedimensions in drawing is the same indifferent cultures. And in 1966 Piaget asl<ed

whether thinl<ing develops in children atthe same rate in different cultures.

AQA (A) Psychology Review

3 iiuntnv: *iir*ui!,; !l *iriy siri*r *i**pUnderpinning cross-cultural psychology is

an assumption of psychic unit3r. ln everyday

terms, this statcs that human diversity is

only skin deep. This suggests that differ-ences in psychological functioning (person-

ality traits, performance on perceptual tests)

and in social behaviour (courtship, atti-tudes) across cultures are merely superficial.So if children in Mozambique remember

Box 1 ls obedience culturally universal?Sample Obedience rate

Malesfemales 65%

Students 85%

Males 85%

Malefemale students 40%/L6%

Male students 50%

Students 62%

Students 90%

Males/females 80%

Malesfemales 92%

Gender differences

But what can we conclude from all this?That the Dutch are to be feared andAustralian females are disobedient?Perhaps not. There are a number ofconfounding variables standing in the wayof such conclusions:* the confederates receiving the shocl<s

varied in each study, some perhapsappearing more vulnerable than othersr in the Australian study the confederatewas femalee in the Dutch study, electric shocl<s werenot used at all, but another form of (verbal)chastisement (electricity can break my willbut words will never hurt me)r time may alter obedience levels (a kindof longitudinal effea)

Perhaps the most worl<able conclusion is

to say that obedience to authority occurs inmany cultural settings, but that these levelsalso vary in different social contexts.

Problems with replicationWhy does replication research tend touncover such variable findings? Thefollowing are two responses to thisquestion.

L Universal phenomena are out therebut replicating original studies has notyet uncovered themThere is no suggestion here that there is

anything wrong with searching for univer-sals, only that replication research has notmet the demands of the tasl<. According tothis view, the following are specific draw-backs of the replication method:.r Culturally equivalent participants arehard to find. Despite trying to ensure thatsamples are drawn from similar groupswithin their own cultures (students, theclergy, schoolchildren, housewives), theselabels have dilferent connotations indifferent settings.s Some researchers are more 'controlled'than others. ln all but a few rare cases,

replications are not done by the sameresearchers as the original worl<. Althoughall experimental psychologists followprofessional research guidelines, it is likelythat some are more ef ficient than others.

" Replications can lose something intranslation. ln any controlled psychologicalresearch, it is vital that all participantsreceive standardised instructions- lncross-cultural replications these instruc-tions have to be translated into differentlanguages.* For some of us, participating in researchis second nature. Filling in questionnaires,answering telephone polls and being

Name and date

Milgram (rsol)

Ancona et al. (1968)

Mantell (1971)

Kilham et al. (I97a)

Burley et al. (7977)

Shanab and Yahya (1978)

Miranda (rear)

Schurz (ress)

Meeus et al (1986)

Where

USA

Ita ly

Cermany

Au stra lia

UK

Jorda n

Spain

Austria

Holla nd

Box 2 Are there gender differences in obedience?Author Country Obedience rate

Edwards (1969)

Bock (1972)

South Africa

USA

Kilham and Mann (1974) Australia

costanzo (1976) USA

Shanab and Yahya(1977) Jordan

Miranda et al. (1981) Spain

Schurz (1SAS) Austria

details from stories more accurately than doWelsh children, this is regarded as a localdifference.

2 Searchingfor universals meanscomparing like with likeThe search for universals is often backed byan assumption of cultural equivalence.Comparing like with lil<e means designingresearch in which two (or more) groups are

treated in an equivalent manner through-out the study and are drawn from equiva-lent populations, which differ only withrespect to their cultural background. ltfollows then that any difference betweenthe groups' performance can be confi-dently altributed to cultural difference.

When cross-cultural psychologists takethe ideas of psychic unity and culturalequivalence out into the field, replicationstudies are very often the result. Thethinking behind these is pretly straighfor-ward. An original study is repeated (repli-cated) in different cultural settings to see if

28% Ye* M 4O%F 1,6%

875%

40%

81%

625%

80%

80%

No

No

No

No

No

No

the same results emerge. Replicationstudies have produced mixed, occasionallyconfusing, findings.

ln replicating Milgram, one would asl<

whether his f indings travel well. lnMilgram's (1963) original obedience study,carried out at Yale University in the USA,

65% of the participants gave 450 voltelectric shocks to their colleagues in whatthey (the participants) thought was a

learning experiment. ls there a culturallyuniversal human predisposition to obeyauthori{, even when there is the possibiliryof causing harm to others?

Many researchers have sought to addressthis question by replicating Milgram's study.Box 1 summarises some findings. Blass(2000) reviews more studies (Box 2) testinggender and obedience across cultures, withonly one showing gender to be a factor. Thisstudy, in Australia, also shows the lowestobedience rate. Overall though, despite vari-able obedience rates across cultures, genderseems to exert little influence.

Box 3 Some key termsTranscultural psychology The study of the relationship between culture and human

behaviour and experience.

Cross-cultural psychology Atranscultural approach dedicated tothe search for culturaluniversals.

Atranscultural approach dedicated tothe search for diversityand the reduct jon of inequality.

Community psychology

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Box 4 Emics and etics: two approaches to transcultural researchTranscultural research can be viewed in terms of the linguistic notions of phonemics andphonetics.

Phonemics is the study of spoken sounds particular to certain languages.

Emic researchers tend to:

o select their subject matter and instruments for analysis once the research is in progress

o apply their findings to the field in which they were gathered

o use tools for analysis which are informed by local knowledge

o only begin to collect data when they are familiar with the ways and manners of the localculture

Phonetics isthe studyofthe universal properties ofspoken sound.

Etic researchers tend to:

o decide what to study and how to analyse it before arriving in the fieldo apply their research findings globally

o analyse behaviour using instruments brought in from outside

o begin gathering data as soon as they arrive in the field

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interviewed are all part of urban living. yet

when research lil<e this is replicated insefiings where it is a less familiar feature ofeveryday life, the strangeness and noveltyof the social situation under investigationmay well have an impact on the resultswhich emerge.

Proponents of this first response wouldnot favour abandoning replication researchaltogether. lnstead, they might prefer tohone the tools of replication so that greaterlevels of cultural equivalence (greatercontrol) could be achieved.

* Umirs*rsn* phe*lom'ler:a ffilev be siltthere but yepf ;{fitlsn reseay(ht smav r}etbe tke rmest *ffestiwn Lisa *{ mt.lr tinreAnyone putting forward this responsewould highlight more fundamentalproblems with replication research:

Culturally diverse settings really are verydiverse. While replicating research indif ferent settings, transcultural psycholo-gists come across social structures, normsand expectations that distinguish thesehost cultures from each other and from theone where the study was originally carriedout (Segall etal.1990). Smallwonder, then,that culturally variable findings emergefrom cross-cultural replications.

Culturally diverse settings mean cultur-ally diverse meanings. lt has already beensuggested that some of the words used in

replication research do not translate easilyfrom one language to another. Morefundamentally, it is arguable that some ofthe very concepts that are investigated in

original research lose or alter their meaningonce they are tal<en into other culturalsetlings. Consider 'stress' , for example. Themeaning of stress, arguably, arose out ofand is situated in a Western culturalcontext. Consequently, cross-culturalstudies can never rcally be true replications

Proponents of this response suggesla direction change for transculturapsychologr. lnstead of asl<ing 'What do all

humans have in common?', we are invitedto turn the question on its head and

consider 'What mal<es humans culturallydiverse?'

Searching for cultural diversityWhat l<ind of transcultural psychologlawaits the researchcr who steps into theuncontrolled to search for cultural variationand diversity in behaviour and experience?Well, to begin with they will find them-selves subscribing to two theoretical ideas

which will drive their search for humandiversity.

1 Psychic unity is deadlnstead of looking for psychic unity, thesearch for cultural variation can lead thetranscultural psychologist to pursue aspects

of humanity as they appear in the outside

world. Rather than investigating a universalhuman psychology irrespective of social and

cultural cont6xt, the search is on for behav-iour and experience in diverse, eueryday set-

tings.ln this kind of search, local variationsin behaviour and experience are the wholepoint of transcultural psycholory. They are

its subject matter, rather than something tobe controlled or made equivalent as part ofthe experimental replication method.lnstead of asl<ing, 'Which internal memorystructures are common to all humans?" a

more suitable research question would be,'How does the praclice of remembering and

forgetting manifest itself in the everydaylives of people in New York, Tehran or Bel-

grade?'

2 Researchers are interpreters, notobjective ob$erversTranscultural psychologists need not see

their interpretations of the events theywitness as separate from those events. For

Shweder (1991), it is impossible to conceive

of events in the world without acknowl-edging our interpretations or mental repre-sentations of them. Researchers are notobjective observers of cultural worlds, theyare active, subjective participants and inter-preters. So instead of asking, 'ls there a

piece of research which provides the defin-itive account of attitude change in WesternAustralia?', try asking, 'Can you show mesome research which provides a good

account of attitude change in WesternAustralia?'

What kind of projects emerge out of a

search for diversity in human behaviourand experience? Typically, these are projects

which take a more emic, less etic approach(see Box 4), such as the one adopted by thecommunity prychologSl movement. To end

this review of approaches to transculturalresearch, I look at an example of such a

project.

Community psychology: findingdiversityin communityUnder the banner of community psych-ology (Sloan 1996), a number ofresearchers are developing methods whichsupport - in practice as well as in theory -the view that behaviour and experienceneed to be studied in communiry settings.

Community psychology is an instance ofpsychology formulating questions and

Box 5 Community psychology formulates research questions inresponse to immediate social and wider societal conditionsTheoretical ly, com m u nity psychology:

o rejectstheportrayaloftheresearchparticipantasanindividualdetachedfromthesocialandwider societal context

o rejects psychology's aspirations to be a science, along with its claims to the trappings of theexperimental, laboratory-bound methods of physics, chemistry and biology

o challenges situations of inequality, conflict and poverty

o devisesresearchquestionsinresponsetoeventsandconditionswithinacommunity,insteadof importing questions from more economically developed countries

o seekstoredressthepowerbalancebetweenresearcherandparticipantsothatthechiefbeneficiaries of any research should be the indigenous communities

Methodologica I ly, com m u n ity psychology:

o rejects the location of research in the laboratory setting

o uses methods for collecting data which view participants in their social and wider societalcontexts

. engages participants in the process ofdeveloping research questions

o works with fully informed, consenting, active participants in the process of collecting data

. engages participants in the application of research findings to issues arising out ofthe social

realities in the community

o challenges its practitionerstoabandonthe roleof expert researchers posingquestionstheyhave generated. lnstead, research questions are gleaned from the community scenario

methods for answering them which are

active responses to particular culturalcircumstances at particular times in history.Box 5 summarises the ideas underpinningcommunity psychology.

Community psychology in situ - can

neighbours become good friends? Landdisputes between indigenous WesternAustralians and their white counterpartswere the subject of Natalie Contos'sresearch project (cited by Drew et al. 2000).She looked at how inter-group attitudescrystallise and sometimes shift, despitehistories riddted with animosity. A keyfeature of her study was her willingness toallow the subject marter of the research toemerge out of the events and relationshipsalready at large in the community. She

spol<e at length with indigenous commu-nity leaders and with whites who weresympathetic to their cause. ln At the inter-face between the two communities'(p.181), Contos facilitated face to facecontact between protagonists from bothsides of the inter-group divide. Before long,

she reported a tangible reduction in preju-dice, especially in the white community.The change owed much to the increasedcontact bewveen the two camps, as well as

a recognition of the shared goals of peace

and reconciliation.ln the search for cultural diversity, the

aim ofthe psychology research project is

often to discover more about humanbehaviour and experience as it is

embedded in cultural circumstances. Ulti-

mately this may lead to the alteration ofthese circumstances. This can be seen as an

alternative to the theory-testing approachadopted by those who seek to investigateuniversal aspects of culture. Clearly thereare advantages and disadvantages to boththese approaches for the overall project oftranscu ltu ra I psychology.

ReferenresDrew, N. et al. (2000) 'ls doing good just

enough? Enabling practice in a disablingdiscipline' (2000) in T. Sloan CriticalPsychology: Voices for Change, Macmillan.

Segall, M. et al. ('1990) Human Behaviour inGlobal Perspectite, Pergamon An excellent,

if dense, all-round introduction.Serpell, R. (1976) Culture's ln;fluence on

Behaviour, Methuen. Still a pocket classic,

ahead of its time.Sloan, T. (ed.) (2000) Critical Psychology,

Palgrave. Excellent on communitypsychologz.

Shweder, R. (1991) Thinking Through

Cultures, Harvard Universify Press. Dense,

but a useful guide to the search forcultural diversiry.

Andrew Stevenson teaches psychology toA-level, Access and Jirst-year undergraduates

at Aquinas College, Stockport, and

Manchester Metropolitan University. His firstbook, Studying Psychology (Palgrave), was

published in 2001-. His second book,lntro-ducingTranscultural Research, will be

published by Palgrave in 2006.

September 2005 ffiK