A Method for Determining Cultural, Demographic, and Personal Constructs

A theoretical distinction is made between cultural, demographic, and personal constructs. The utility of the distinction is illustrated. Taking advantage of the shared aspect of culture, a method is presented that extracts a shared element of subjective culture from cultural samples. The method is illustrated with data concerning values obtained in Illinois and Hong Kong. The method converges with other methods of measurement of values, but has distinct advantages they do not possess. The illustration shows considerable agreement between Illinois and Hong Kong on most values, but also a few large discrepancies indicating extreme modernity in Hong Kong.