IMPOSED ETICS—EMICS—DERIVED ETICS: THE OPERATIONALIZATION OF A COMPELLING IDEA

There is a tension between two research traditions in cross-cultural psychology: working intensively within a single culture in order to understand indigenous psychological phenomena and how they are related to cultural context; and working comparatively across cultures in order to understand broad patterns of relationships between behavioural and cultural variables. This tension can be resolved, and the two approaches integrated, by the adoption of the emic and etic concepts of Pike, and by the elaboration of a set of concrete research steps rooted in these concepts. This paper outlines a conceptual and operational framework for the pursuit of both the indigenous and comparative goals, using examples from research on intelligence and attitudes.     

Current Controversies in the Study of Personality across Cultures

Research on culture and personality is thriving. In this article, I address several prominent controversies, including: (a) alternative perspectives on the relationship between culture and personality; (b) the cross‐cultural universality versus specificity of personality structure; (c) whether comparisons of mean inventory profiles reveal valid cultural differences in trait levels; and (d) the importance and role of the trait concept across cultures. Greater consensus regarding the relationship between culture and personality will likely be achieved if researchers clarify which aspects of personality they are addressing (e.g., basic tendencies vs. characteristic adaptations). Recent lexical and indigenous studies have weakened consensus regarding the universality and comprehensiveness of the Five‐Factor Model. The validity of cultural mean profiles remains unresolved. Research on the importance of traits across cultures provides support for both trait and cultural psychology perspectives, although more culture‐comparative studies of consistency and predictive validity are needed. Suggestions for research are offered.     

Culture and Personality: Variability across Universal Motives as the Missing Link

What is the relation between culture and personality? I argue that to address this question, it is necessary to meet five criteria: (1) to identify universal principles of human functioning that underlie both culture and personality; (2) to treat those principles at different levels of analysis for culture and personality; (3) to define culture and personality in terms of those principles in a manner that maintains the integrity of these concepts; (4) to select specific psychological factors that, because of their survival value, are present in every culture and individual, although to varying degrees; and (5) to postulate how different cultures and personalities emerge from variability in the predominance of those specific psychological factors. I then propose that these criteria can be met by identifying specific human motives that are both universal and vary across individuals, situations, and groups. I propose a five‐step model that describes how cultures influence the personalities that emerge among its members, with particular emphasis on the human‐defining period of development between 3 and 6 years of age, and how those personalities in turn influence the culture (from effects of regulatory fit). As initial support for the model, evidence is reviewed for commonality among cultures in the existence of promotion, prevention, locomotion, and assessment motives; for variability across cultures in the predominance of these motives as modal personalities; and for universality in the relations between each motive and Big Five and self‐esteem trait characteristics. Combining the latter universal relations with the cultural variability in modal personalities yields cultural differences in manners of goal pursuit.     

Translation and Cultural Comparison: Some Epistemological Reflections

In its traditional guise, cross-cultural psychology is a science of comparative measurement. Its chief method is the regulated observation or recording of behaviour in different cultural milieux and its quantitative conversion into a common metric. This method allows for the estimation of differences across cultures on the strength or magnitude of the behaviour. We can therefore speak of one cultural group doing more of Y, or being more Y, than some other group, where Y is a conceptually and operationally defined behaviour taken to apply equally well to both groups. The culture-independence of the definition supports examination of how the magnitude of the behaviour may be determined or conditioned by some cultural variable X. According to this picture, culture (the independent variable) differs from place to place and the features by which it differs produce more or less of the universally defined behaviour (the dependent variable) under study. The hypothetical contingency of ‘culture affecting behaviour’ that underlies this approach is thereby maintained. In this paper, I use the problem of translation to cast doubt on this picture of cross-cultural research and the inferential strength of its comparative method. In opposition, I argue that we never measure the same behaviour across cultures if behaviour is understood as socially significant action. Rather, the specification of analogous actions across cultures is a highly uncertain approximation involving the inevitable projection of one’s own conceptual scheme. I argue further that most social phenomena of interest to cross-cultural psychologists cannot be adequately defined in a manner that divorces them from the local linguistic conventions and normative frameworks through which they are realized as part of cultural life. For this reason, cross-cultural psychology cannot effectively model itself on the natural sciences. It is as much hermeneutics as psychometrics.     

The Integration of Behavior,Vol. III by Thomas M. French

This article presents a model for understanding development within children's psychotherapy groups. It is proposed that two complementary cultures exist within children's groups, one, indigenous peer culture, strictly of the children's making and the other, therapeutic group culture, created by the therapist in collaboration with group members. The therapist is wise to approach indigenous peer culture as an ethnographer might a native culture, with an emphasis on observation and seeking understanding rather than on intervention. The therapist can use the indigenous peer culture to speak to the children in their own language and eventually to engage them in collaboratively building a meaning system that is uniquely designed to address their psychotherapeutic needs. The article defines these concepts, develops them theoretically, and illustrates them clinically.     

Three approaches to the psychology of culture: Where do they come from? Where can they go?

Cultural psychology, cross-cultural psychology, and indigenous psychology are three approaches to the psychology of culture. The author begins by comparing the three approaches – conceptually, methodologically; and historically. She concludes that each approach has contributed knowledge of the "deep structure" of culture to the field of psychology. This "deep structure" consists of the framework of individualism and collectivism; particular cultures are therefore surface forms of one or the other of these basic cultural frameworks. Rather than being universal, classical social and developmental psychology are seen as reflecting a particular indigenous psychology. For the future, a truly universal psychology must offer a theoretical framework that encompasses alternative indigenous psychologies.     

The sociocultural movement in psychology,the role of theories in sociocultural inquiries,and the theory of sociocultural models

This special issue presents the theory of sociocultural models (TSCM) and its applications in diverse areas of psychology, including education, health care, clinical practice, gender relations, and general research. As many theories already exist in the social sciences, some readers may ask: “Why do cross‐cultural, cultural, and indigenous psychologists need another theory?” This question is comprised of two aspects: culture/cultural and theory/theoretical. Therefore, to answer it, it is important to clarify both issues. The first relates to cultural and its relation to psychological. The second, theory, considers its relation to cultural and psychological. These issues have long‐range implications for all culture and psychology disciplines as they pose many questions: What role does culture play in the mental functioning of people? How is culture constituted? Is cultural related to social? Does people’s mental functioning exert reciprocal influences on their cultural and social functioning? While working toward answering these questions, researchers quickly determine that more questions arise: What role should theories play in answering these questions? What constitutes theory in culture and psychology disciplines? How should such a theory (or such theories) address the triad of cultural, social, and mental? Consequently, in an effort to provide an overview of the TSCM and to begin to answer these questions, this introduction consists of two parts. The first part addresses the sociocultural turn in modern psychology; this part discusses its implications for research in culture and psychology disciplines. The second segment examines the topic of the theoretical backgrounds of cultural and cross‐cultural research and connects the philosophical paradigms of interpretivism and realism with the theory of sociocultural models. This introduction concludes with a brief overview of the articles included in this issue.     

Cultures and Cultural Property

abstract  In a number of contexts one comes across the suggestion that cultures are collective owners of cultural property, such as particularly significant works of art. Indigenous peoples are often held to be collective owners of cultural property, but they are not the only ones. Icelandic culture is said to have a claim on the Flatejarbók and Greek culture is held to own the Parthenon Marbles. In this paper I investigate the conditions under which a culture is the rightful owner of cultural property. I argue against the claims that cultures inherit cultural property. I also argue that a culture's claim to own cultural property is seldom, if ever, founded on either practices employed in the culture or collective production of cultural property. I maintain, however, that the very value of cultural property for some culture can, in some instances, provide the basis for the culture's claim on the property.     

Cultural Influences on Perceptions of Health, Illness, and Disability: A Review and Focus on Autism

This conceptual paper considers the role of culture in shaping family, professional, and community understanding of developmental disabilities and their treatments. The meanings of health, illness, and disability vary greatly across cultures and across time. We use Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to provide a theoretical framework for examining disability, with special attention to autism spectrum disorders. Cultural beliefs about the cause of a disorder influence families’ decision-making about what treatments to use and what outcomes to expect. Autism provides an example that is especially challenging, as there is no agreed-upon cause. Also, an overwhelming array of treatments is available in the West for autism, including behavioral, cognitive, pharmaceutical, sensory, relational, vitamin, and diet therapies. Other cultures contribute additional views on cause (e.g., Karma, Allah’s will) and treatments (e.g., acupuncture, herbal medicines, Ayurveda). We suggest how a broad cultural view can help us understand treatments and the treatment delivery system of a nation and a culture. For the best course of care, professionals need to understand and respect families’ views of autism and work toward mutually agreeable treatments that may involve a combination of biomedical and cultural practices. Although a family-focused, open teamwork model that aims to acknowledge the context of the child, take into consideration the strengths and limitations of the child and the family, and introduce appropriate, sustainable, and sensitive interventions is regarded as best practice in the United States, it will take sensitive work to find out whether it will suit other cultural groups across the world.     

More than E,P and A in semantic differential scales: AN ANSWER TO QUESTIONS RAISED BY S. T. M. LANE1

The present study demonstrates the separation of affective and denotative meaning systems in the semantic space by a new factor analytic technique. The data used were collected in Brazil and Hungary following standard pan-cultural procedures (Osgood et al., 1975) for semantic differential ratings on 100 heterogeneous concepts against 60 indigenous scales elicited from teen-age males in the respective language/culture communities. Results from both cultures provided evidence for dominance of affective Evaluation, Potency and Activity (E, P, A) in the indigenous factor structures. The dimensions in the “other” (Denotation) space, orthogonal to Affect, are also clearly interpretable affect-free semantic features of concepts. The simultaneous salience of these two semantic systems for most scales highlights the importance of cultural meanings of scales for each indigenous culture under study.     

Tell me where you come from and I know what makes you tick: Managing the consumer personality–satisfaction link in diverse cultures

Marketing programs that evoke high satisfaction and marketing success in one culture often fail in others, but the understanding of those cultural differences is insufficient. The question of how culture is linked to consumer satisfaction is still not answered satisfactorily. One promising paradigm for exploring such questions comes from progress in cross-cultural personality psychology. Thus, we examine the influence of individual-level cultural orientations on personality, and the role of personality and affect in satisfaction formation across cultures. Based on experimental data, we show that a high individualism orientation triggers higher levels of extraversion; a high uncertainty-avoidance orientation triggers higher levels of neuroticism. Based on field data from Japan, Spain, and the United States, we identify equivalent relationships amongst personality-related antecedent processes shaping satisfaction indicating universality across these cultures. The findings demonstrate the usefulness of cross-cultural personality psychology theory and methods for understanding and predicting consumer responses to marketing actions across cultures.     

A teaching framework for cross-cultural genetic counseling

The increasing diversity of American society has brought growing recognition of the need to bridge cultures in the delivery of genetic counseling services. New immigrants and members of diverse ethnic groups face multiple barriers to genetic counseling services. The need to train genetic counselors to deal with cultural diversity is especially crucial in the new genetic era, given the rapid expansion of available technology, with the resulting social and ethical ramifications. A framework for teaching cross-cultural issues in genetic counseling training programs is presented that can be implemented in step-wise fashion, consistent with available resources. Cross-cultural issues can be incorporated into existing teaching and training modalities by expanding the orientation from monocultural to multicultural. Relevant clinical experience, exploration of students' preconceptions and biases, reading materials, and lectures by invited speakers can all enhance students' knowledge and sensitivity. It is critically important that training programs furnish students with the basic tools necessary for the ongoing process of learning about cultural diversity.     

信任的跨文化差异研究：视角与方法

信任作为一种复杂的社会心理现象,其相关研究不能脱离个体所处的文化背景。个体在一般信任水平,信任的建立方式,信任的种类及信任修复的方式等方面都存在着显著的文化差异。信任存在文化差异的主要原因在于个体对线索的提取方式不同、所处社会文化情境不同及文化的变迁。量化研究和质性研究相结合的方法是信任研究主要采用的方法,其中卡片分类与深度访谈相结合法、“桌面游戏”法最受研究者的青睐。未来的研究应该进一步探查信任的本土化概念,并关注全球化背景下不同文化下个体的人际信任建立的问题。     

Alternative Spiritualities and the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism

Some practices in Alternative Spiritualities have been criticised by social commentators for their ‘appropriation’ of indigenous cultures. This article will argue that ‘appropriation’ is not limited to these cultures but is part of a larger phenomenon, that of cultural consumption of selective parts of history. Furthermore, this cultural consumption is not restricted to history alone, but is extended to contemporary popular culture, such as people and groups who find inspiration for their spirituality from the fictions of H.P. Lovecraft, vampire stories and the Star Wars mythos. Following Fredric Jameson's work on Postmodernism, this article will provide an insight into how the cultural consumption of history and popular culture by people involved in Alternative Spiritualities has become part of the cultural logic of late capitalism.     

Convergence of Character Strengths in American and Japanese Young Adults

We investigated cultural influences on the distribution of character strengths, gender differences in character strengths, and the relationship of happiness to character strengths. Young adults from the United States (n=1099) and Japan (n=308) completed the English or Japanese versions of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths. American and Japanese showed similar distributions of the 24 strengths measured: Higher strengths included love, humor and kindness, and lesser strengths included prudence, self-regulation, and modesty. Gender differences across cultures were also similar: Females were more likely than males to report strengths of love and kindness, whereas males were more likely to report bravery and creativity. In both samples, associations with happiness were found for zest, hope, curiosity and gratitude. The present study is a first step in an international study of character strengths, and we discuss the ubiquity and variation of character across culture.     

早产儿视网膜病变——现阶段难以逾越的鸿沟

早产儿视网膜病变（ROP）纠纷频频,根源在哪里？本文结合案例,回顾历史,就ROP的发病、临床与研究进展,拓展思路,从另一角度,阐述了ROP预防与治疗存在的问题和问题的关键,阐述了ROP发生的根本原因和相关因素,阐述了ROP纠纷的根源和有待解决的问题以及我们应该选择的道路与梦想。     

Integrating global and local perspectives in psycholexical studies: A GloCal approach

Similarities and differences in the results of psycholexical research across cultures may be due to real cross-cultural differences or to specific methodological choices. Two typically approaches used are: global, which follows a variation of the original lexical paradigm, and local, which is indigenous in methods and assumptions. We propose a GloCal approach that is more likely to yield a comprehensive picture of personality by combining approaches informed by a thorough understanding of that language and culture. The GloCal approach allows researchers to (a) identify shared and unique components of personality across cultures, (b) ensure that the lexicon used is relevant to the culture and (c) increase the ecological validity of stimulus materials in personality inventories.     

Constantine,Babel, and Yankee Doodling: Whose Indigeneity? Whose Psychology?

This essay addresses the issue of indigeneity in terms of local cultures. The authors do so in conversation with Kim, Yang, and Hwang’s recent book, Indigenous and Cultural Psychology: Understanding People in Context. The life and work of Virgilio Enriquez is reviewed briefly as an exemplary indigenous psychologist. He illustrates the possibility of an indigenous psychology with a local, regulative grammar of cognition, affect, behavior, and relationships. The accounts of the tower of Babel and Constantine point to the irreversible damage of homogenizing culture and imposing it on other cultures. We argue that the imposition of a local, particular Western psychology on a global scale might risk a similar cost. The authors propose that current research in indigenous psychologies might take more seriously the notion that culture is not monolithic but should be understood from the point of view of the analysis of power relationships. Secondly, the authors argue that the role of language has not received sufficient attention in terms of shaping thought and increasing the incommensurability between cultures. Thirdly, it is argued that positivist epistemology has dominated the field and that more hermeneutic approaches must be considered. Fourth, the question must be asked regarding who controls indigenous research. Too often control has been exogenous rather than in the hands of local leaders. Finally, it is suggested that North Americans would do well to examine and recognize the indigeneity of their own psychology.     

Reclaiming Culture: Reculturation of Transracial and International Adoptees

The cultural experiences of transracial and international adoptees (TRIAs) are uniquely affected by their adoption across cultures and racial/ethnic groups. Upon adoption, TRIAs typically identify quickly with their adoptive parents’ White culture but may eventually seek to reclaim their birth culture. Current terminology used to describe cultural identifications and changes (e.g., acculturation, enculturation) does not adequately depict the reclamation of birth culture by TRIAs. The authors describe a new term for this process called reculturation.     

Complementary cultures in children's psychotherapy groups: conflict, coexistence, and convergence in group development.

This article presents a model for understanding development within children's psychotherapy groups. It is proposed that two complementary cultures exist within children's groups, one, indigenous peer culture, strictly of the children's making and the other, therapeutic group culture, created by the therapist in collaboration with group members. The therapist is wise to approach indigenous peer culture as an ethnographer might a native culture, with an emphasis on observation and seeking understanding rather than on intervention. The therapist can use the indigenous peer culture to speak to the children in their own language and eventually to engage them in collaboratively building a meaning system that is uniquely designed to address their psychotherapeutic needs. The article defines these concepts, develops them theoretically, and illustrates them clinically.