Methodological Issues in Psychological Research on Culture

The extent to which methodological tools can help correct the overemphasis on fact finding and speed up the slow theoretical progress in cross-cultural psychology is analyzed. Two types of contributions to the current predicament are delineated. First, cross-cultural psychologists have created their own partis pris. Second, partis pris have been inherited from mainstream psychology. In the future, most cross-cultural studies will be carried out by researchers who have an interest in cultural variations on specific variables or instruments, whereas the group of researchers who spend their professional lives in cross-cultural psychology will remain small but influential. Methodological issues arising in studies by both groups are described. Important trends are (a) the change from exploration to explanation of cross-cultural differences, which has implications for the design of cross-cultural studies; and (b) the so-far-hesitant usage of recently developed statistical techniques, such as item response theory, structural equation modeling, and multilevel modeling.