Toward a Conception of Culture for Cross-Cultural Psychology

The concept "culture" in cross-cultural psychology remains largely unexamined theoretically, and is often undifferentiated from other core behavioral science concepts such as "social system" and "society." As a result, the theoretical usefulness and research value of these constructs have been diminished seriously. In order to provide the beginnings of a theory of "culture" for heuristic use in cross-cultural psychology, an attempt is made in this article first, to differentiate conceptually, and second, to interrelate the packaged variables of "culture," "social system," and "society." The intent of this article is to promote the framework for shared understanding about culture and its relation to the other core concepts discussed here, and hence to initiate a dialogue within cross-cultural psychology about the utility of the conceptualization.