Methods and Assessment in Culture and Psychology

Comparing psychological variation across cultures requires accurate and appropriate methods. This book highlights methodological developments that promise to improve the work of social and behavioral scientists and practitioners. It covers acculturation and identity, individual differences, and features perspectives on future themes and challenges.

Significant advancements in methodologies and statistical techniques in cross-cultural psychological research abound, but general practice, education, and most researchers in psychology rarely use them. This leads to misinterpretations, misrepresentations, and prejudice. The authors expertly demonstrate the importance of methodological rigor to safeguard appropriate inferences about similarities and differences, particularly when methods have not been developed in the cultural contexts where they are used. The book features acculturation and identity, including contributions on remote acculturation, religiosity, and organizational contexts. It also covers individual differences and evaluates methodological progress in educational assessment, emotions, motivation, and personality. Methodological and psychometric perspectives on equivalence and bias, as well as measurement invariance in cross-cultural research, are a central theme. From study design to data interpretation, it is essential for psychology, and the social sciences in general, to adopt methods and assessment procedures that are more rigorous for culture-comparative studies.