Cross‐cultural Research Methods in Psychology

Citation

Karma, K. (2012), "Cross‐cultural Research Methods in Psychology", Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 612-616. https://doi.org/10.1108/ccm.2012.19.4.612.1

The book is a great value for those, who intend to conduct a cross‐cultural research in psychology. With its 392 pages and 21 authors contributing to 12 individual chapters it generates a valuable understanding of the methodology and practice lying behind this kind of research. The book is divided into two main parts – the first part concentrates on the conceptual and methodological issues, which researchers should be aware of before conducting a study, whereas the second part deals with methods and procedures for data analysis that one needs to be conscious of after data collection.

The field of cross‐cultural psychology focuses on explaining the features of human behaviour in a cross‐cultural perspective, testing their similarities and differences and examining whether psychological theories and principles are universal (true for all people of all cultures) or culture‐specific (true for some people of some cultures) (Matsumoto and Juang, 2008, p. 5). The reader needs to keep in mind that the unit of analysis is culture and therefore the possible explanations of results should be analyzed in the framework of particular cultural contexts. Cross‐cultural studies has become an increasingly important field of study, as one the editors of the book, David Matsumoto points out in the foreword of the book:

[…] as an increasing number of social scientists come to recognize the pervasive influence of culture on individual human behaviour, it has become imperative for culture to be included as an important variable in all aspects of psychological research, theory and practice.

The editors Matsumoto and Van de Vijver also highlight in the introductory Chapter 1 that as intercultural research may provide us great advantages on how to function effectively in different cultural contexts, it also brings with it problems like the potential of producing incorrect cultural knowledge because of methodological shortcomings of the studies (p. 2). Therefore, the chapters of the book cover the most important topics in the field starting from equivalence and bias issues, translation and adapting tests, sampling, accounting for different response styles across cultures, data analysis, multilevel modeling and the subject of meta‐analysis. Hence, the book provides a wide knowledge and necessary awareness of the opportunities and threats in cross‐cultural research before planning this kind of study on the one hand, and obtaining scientific sense of the results on the other hand (Matsumoto and Van de Vijver, 2011).

The editors of the book, David Matsumoto and Fons J.R. van de Vijver both have PhD degrees in psychology and an impressive record of research and publishing in the field. Besides, David Matsumoto has received many awards and honors in the field of psychology and Fons J.R. van de Vijver is one of the most frequently cited cross‐cultural psychologists in Europe.

I am reviewing the book from the perspective of a PhD student and a young researcher in the field of cross‐cultural studies and this book really was of great assistance for me in framing my previous knowledge and experience on the topic. The objective of the book is to provide advanced knowledge on methodological problems that need to be addressed when conducting a cross‐cultural research. I especially like that it gives a very compact and comprehensive overview of the substantial issues one needs to acknowledge in cross‐cultural comparative studies. It also includes a large amount of examples of contemporary research, as well as many further references for readers looking for more detailed data. The book provides the latest knowledge on a wide range of different methodological problems and their solutions; nevertheless, at the same time it requires the reader to be familiar with variety of statistical methods for applying this knowledge into practice. However, it is surely an essential reading for any student/researcher of culture.

The book leads you closely through the stages of cross‐cultural research issues in psychology right from the beginning – what one needs to consider when planning and conducting a study, to the end – how to analyze and interpret the data. The good thing is that in many cases the theoretical part is accompanied by many thought‐provoking examples and interpretations, including several step‐by‐step instructions to follow in your own analysis.

The topics of the book are sequenced logically starting from the planning and conducting a study and followed by data analytic and methodological issues. The book is divided into two main parts. The first part of the book (divided into five chapters) deals with conceptual and methodological issues of study design and might be well suggested to those not yet so familiar with the field as everything is described in details and is thus easy to follow. The editors of the book specially emphasize that designing quality studies is essential as “even the greatest knowledge in statistical methodologies can ever fix a bad study design or poorly collected data” (p. 8).

However, the second part (divided into six chapters) can be considered more theoretical – it gives a great understanding of what should be encountered when analyzing the data, although then one should have a good overview and/or experience also in terms of methodology to apply this theory. Therefore, I suggest this book both to beginners for getting a detailed notion and relevant understanding of what needs to be kept in mind when dealing with cross‐cultural studies, and to students and researchers operating in the field to get a very compact and logically followed tips for carrying out different phases of cross‐cultural research.

Hereby, let me introduce you the content of the book more closely. In the first chapter the editors Fons J.R. van de Vijver and David Matsumoto set the stage for the book explaining methodological issues that form the basis to cross‐cultural research, as there are many matters to consider, when compared to monocultural studies. The authors highlight advantages and risks in cross‐cultural studies shedding light on the issues of rival explanations and the reasons these can be accounted for, including cultural distance and the type of research questions, reminding the reader of the importance of research design in the first place. Therefore, it introduces the reader through what one needs to consider when planning cross‐cultural research and opens the background of the book more precisely.

The first part of the book includes five chapters (Chapter 2‐Chapter 6), which focus on the conceptual and methodological issues that researchers should be aware of during the design phase of their studies. Chapter 2 by van de Vijver and Leung cover the issues associated with bias (construct, method, item bias) and equivalence (construct, structural, metric, scalar equivalence), referring to a crucial role of validity in cross‐cultural research. Procedures to deal with these issues are classified into a priori and a posteriori types according to whether they affect a study before data collection or in the stage of data analysis. For example, if socially desirable responding is expected to influence responses differentially across groups then it is useful to assess such styles in selected groups (a priori). However, after conducting a study one should test whether an applied instrument measures the same underlying constructs in each culture (a posteriori). The chapter is then continued with attention to design procedures than can be used to minimize the various sources of bias and maximize the validity of the adaptations (concept‐, culture‐, language‐ and measurement adaptations).

One potential source of bias unique to cross‐cultural research is related to translation and adaptation issues. In Chapter 3 Hambleton and Zenisky provide a Review Form of 25 questions, all associated with problems that have been identified in the field of test translation and adaptation and have been documented in the literature. The questions are organized by meaning, such as general translation questions, item format and appearance, grammar and phrasing, passages and other item‐relevant stimulus materials, and cultural relevance and/or specificity. Besides that the authors offer readers also a practically applicable item translation and adaptation review form.

Chapter 4 focuses on identification of cultural elements that can explain cross‐cultural differences arguing that the origins of the observed differences should be analyzed as specifically as possible in respect to the cultures involved. Explaining such specific features responsible for cultural differences is called unpackaging culture. The authors Bond and van de Vijver provide a division to research outcomes or as they say “consequences of culture for psychologists” into positioning (difference across cultures in the level of a psychological outcome) and linking (difference in the strength of connection between variables) effects, presenting several examples on how to unpackage culture in this framework and offering instructions for methodological application.

If previously the focus was on selection of variables relevant to the model, then in Chapter 5 the authors Boehnke, Lietz, Schreier and Wilhelm describe the key issues of sampling – selection of individuals based on the purpose of the study. They provide a very profound overview of different types of sampling, the implications on the levels of culture and of the individual (outlining both quantitative and qualitative research) and finally, how all of this can be applied in cross‐cultural psychology. The content is very rich of examples (the practice and the implications) and leads the reader to a clear understanding of why and how sampling really forms the very important core of data collection and research.

Yet another issue that researchers face is different response styles as a source of measurement error. The authors here refer to several studies (Gur and Sackheim, 1979; Lalwani et al., 2006; Paulhus, 1991; Triandis and Gelfand, 1998) revealing that response styles like impression management and self‐deceptive enhancement correspond to one's concerns about social relationships – to present oneself in such ways to “fit in” harmoniously and gain social approval versus to see oneself as competent and self‐reliant according to different culturally relevant goals. However, there are various elements that may predict different response styles, different types of measures to identify these and strategies to confront them. A selection of these topics is carefully covered in Chapter 6 by Jonhnson, Shavitt and Holbrook.

The second part of the book contains six chapters (Chapter 7‐Chapter 12), which focus on the methodological issues in cross‐cultural studies. In Chapter 7 Fisher and Fontaine describe data analytic methods for investigating measurement instrument equivalence between cultures. The topic is of great importance and forms an essential knowledge for conducting cross‐cultural research. Here the authors provide clear understanding of the main concepts as well as a variety of methods (and their limitations accompanied with precise description of indexes and coefficients of importance in order to decide how to proceed) to apply when using an instrument on different cultural groups. The authors have outlined a great amount of valuable literature of the field and communicate it in an easily understandable language making this rather complicated topic interesting and easy to follow.

Continuing the matter, in Chapter 8 Sireci provides insight on how to evaluate test and survey items for bias across languages and cultures. This is a logical following to the previous chapter, as linguistic and cultural differences are both relevant when ensuring the measurement instrument equivalence across cultures. The author distinguishes item bias from item impact and differential item functioning (DIF) and provides five methods for evaluating DIF.

In Chapter 9 effect sizes in cross‐cultural research are captured by Matsumoto, Kim, Grissom and Dinnel. The focus is on how to detect statistically (signifying) or also practically (large or important) significant results in cross‐cultural research on the level of groups and individuals. The solution is using either measures of group differences in means (common t‐ and F‐statistics) or measures of cultural effect size (provided in the chapter) – a distinction that a researcher should be aware of.

In Chapter 10 an additional discussion is presented about individual and cultural level of analysis. The authors Fontaine and Fischer explain the phenomenon of isomorphism, which indicates that a studied domain has the same meaning at individual and cultural levels of analysis. The terms internal structure equivalence and internal structure isomorphism refer to the unit of analysis and a multilevel approach needs to be applied in order to detect whether individual characteristics can be ascribed to cultures and vice versa.

In Chapter 11 the previous topic is continued with multilevel modeling approach by Nezlek. The author provides a rather novel approach in studying joint effects of individual and cultural differences using multilevel random coefficient modeling (MRCM). The matter is that relationships at different levels of analysis (individual and culture level) are independent and here several guidelines are provided for carrying out this kind of analysis and interpreting the results.

Finally, recently increasingly popular topic of cross‐cultural meta‐analysis is covered by van Hemert in Chapter 12. Meta‐analysis enables researchers to study a problem of interest based on secondary data. Two types of cross‐cultural meta‐analysis are described depending on whether the focus is on size of cultural difference (culture as a moderator variable in analysis) or interpretation of cultural difference in terms of culture‐level moderators (culture as an independent variable in analysis). The author provides as well an in‐depth overview of how to conduct a cross‐cultural meta‐analysis.

The book surely evokes many thoughts on how to convey a cross‐cultural research in psychology. It brings you closely through the key features, providing in many cases also a hands‐on advice and examples to the problems one may encounter. For me personally, the book enriched my approach to my own research at many angles, provoking new ideas and providing several solutions for how to continue from theoretical as well as methodological point of view. The book captures all the important issues and contemporary viewpoints on cross‐cultural research in psychology. I found some chapters of special interest, but I would not highlight my favourites here as I am convinced now that all the readers have an opportunity to gain further knowledge and solutions for initiating or continuing with their research in this very interesting and multifaceted field of cross cultural research.