Cross-cultural Psychology

Ruth Chao

Cross-cultural psychology is the study of similarities and differences in individual psychological functioning in various cultural and ethnic groups, as well as the relationships between psychological variables and sociocultural, ecological, and biological variables. Cross-cultural psychology regards culture as essential to psychological functioning, as an integral context for psychological development and behavior. Cross-cultural psychology consists mainly of diverse forms of comparative research so as to discern various distinct cultural factors—many of which are related to ethnicity—that are relevant to forms of development and behavior. Cross-cultural research typically seeks evidence of how culture can be taken as a set of variables, independent or contextual, that affect various aspects of individual behavior. Differences in interpretation of “culture” account for the differences between cross-cultural psychology and ethnic-minority psychology. They differ in two ways, although they sometimes overlap and are taken as synonymous by some psychologists. Ethnic minority psychology focuses on various ethnic groups such ...

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