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Chapter 2 Cross-Cultural Research Methods Notes and Vocabulary

Class notes from Professor Eugene Derobertis's class.
Course

Cross-Cultural Psychology (21:830:322)

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Students shared 17 documents in this course
Academic year: 2016/2017
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Chapter 2: Research Methods Types of Research First stage involved initial tests of cultural differences and discovery of fascinating cultural differences. Second stage involved search for meaningful dimensions of cultural variability that can possibly explain those differences. Third stage involved conceptual application of those meaningful dimensions in studies. Fourth stage (currently in) involves empirically applying those dimensions and other possible cultural explanations of behavior experimentally (not just conceptually) in order to scientifically document their effects. Method validation studies Validity: the degree to which a finding, measurement, or statistic is accurate, or represents what it is supposed to. Reliability: degree to which a finding, measurement, or statistic is consistent. Research scales that are validated in one culture is not equally valid in another researchers concerned with equivalence in validity of their measures, scales, and tests validation studies Examine whether a scale, test, or measure originally developed in a culture is valid in another culture Purpose is to establish equivalence of across cultures Indigenous cultural studies (test for differences in a psychological variable) Rich descriptions of complex theoretical models within a single culture Insights generated from these studies compared across comparisons (often the hypothesis that one culture will have significantly higher scores on the variable than the others) Involve participants from two or more cultures who are measured on some psychological variable of interest Responses obtained from different cultural samples are compared against each other Types of comparisons Exploratory vs hypothesis testing Exploratory studies studies designed to examine the existence of similarities or generally simple, designs comparing two or more cultures on a psychological variable studies designed to test why cultural differences exist. They go beyond simple designs either including context variables or using experiments Presence or absence of contextual factors Context factors are any variables that can explain, partly or fully, differences when they are observed in a may involve characteristics of the participants (SES, education, age) or their cultures (economic development and religious institutions) Structure vs studies compare constructs, their measurements, or their relationships with other constructs across cultures studies compare mean levels of between cultures Individual vs ecological (cultural) level studies are those where date from individuals are the unity of analysis studies analyze data with country or culture as the unit of analysis studies Studies that involve data collection at multiple levels of analysis, such as the individual level, context, community, and national culture Designing comparative research Getting the right research question Must start first with a comprehensive and functional knowledge of that literature so that one understands what gaps in knowledge exist and what research questions should be addressed in order to contribute to that knowledge One of the major challenges that faces researchers today concerns how to isolate source of such differences, and identify the active cultural (vs ingredients that produced those differences Is the source of differences to be explained cultural or not? How do we know that to be true, and more importantly, how does one demonstrate that empirically? Designs that establish linkages between culture and psychological variables important to establish linkages between contents of culture and psychological variables of interest in studies Linkage studies: studies that attempt to measure an aspect of culture theoretically hypothesized to produce cultural differences and then empirically link that measured aspect of culture with the dependent variable of interest Unpackaging studies: unpackage the contents of the global, unspecific concept of culture into specific, measurable psychological constructs and examine their contribution to cultural differences Context variables: operationalize aspects of culture that researchers believe produce differences in psychological variables. These are actually measured in unpackaging studies measures of culture: assess psychological dimensions related to meaningful dimensions of cultural variability and that are completed individuals. They are often used as context variables to ensure that samples in different cultures actually harbor the cultural characteristics thought to differentiate them Idiocentrism: individualism on the individual level. On the cultural level, individualism refers to how a culture functions. Idiocentrism refers to how individuals may act in accordance with individualistic cultural frameworks Procedural bias: do the procedures which data are collected mean the same in all cultures tested? Measurement bias: the degree to which measures used to collect data in different cultures are equally valid and reliable Operationalization: the ways researchers conceptually define a variable and measure it Psychometric equivalence: the degree to which different measures used in a comparison study are statistically equivalent in the cultures being compared that is, whether the measures are equally valid and reliable in all cultures studied Factor analysis: a statistical technique that allows researchers to group items on a questionnaire. The theoretical model underlying factor analysis is that groups of items on a questionnaire are answered in similar ways bc they are assessing the same, single underlying psychological interpreting the groupings underlying the items, therefore, researchers make inferences about the underlying traits that are being measured. Structural equivalence: the degree to which a measure used in a study produces the same factor analysis results in the different countries being compared. Internal reliability: the degree to which different items in a questionnaire are related to each other, and give consistent responses Response bias: a systematic tendency to respond in certain ways to items or scales Socially desirable responding: tendencies to give answers on questionnaires that make oneself look good Acquiescence bias: the tendency to agree rather than disagree with items on questionnaires Extreme response bias: the tendency to use the ends of a scale regardless of item content Reference group effect: the idea that people make implicit social comparisons with others when making ratings on scales. That is, ratings will be influenced the implicit comparisons they make bt themselves and others, and these influences may make comparing responses across cultures difficult. Interpretational bias: are statistically significant findings practically meaningful? Are the interpretations made about the findings and conclusions drawn biased in some way? Are interpretations about cultural sources of differences justified data? Analyzing data: often use inferential statistics such as or ANOVA and engage in what is known as null hypothesis significance compare differences observed between groups to the differences one would normally expect on the basis of chance alone and then compute the probability that the results would have been obtained solely chance Can help determine the degree to which differences in mean values reflect meaningful differences among the general class of statistics is called effect size when used in a setting, they are known as cultural effect size statistics Dealing with nonequivalent data: best approximations of the closest equivalents in terms of theory and method in a study are four different ways to handle: 1. Preclude comparison: most not make comparison in the first place meaningless) 2. Reduce the nonequivalence in the data: refocus comparisons solely on the equivalent parts of data 3. Interpret the nonequivalence: make it important info concerning differences 4. Ignore the nonequivalence: many ignore the problem, clinging to beliefs concerning scale invariance across cultures despite lack of evidence to support beliefs Interpreting findings: many researchers interpret data obtained through their own cultural filters, and their biases can affect their interpretations to varying degrees Data that is correlational can only offer correlational inferences are not justified in a correlational study Cultural attribution fallacies: a mistaken interpretation in comparison studies. Cultural attribution fallacies occur when researchers infer that something cultural produced the differences they observed in their study, despite the fact that they may not be empirically justified in doing so bc they did not actually measure those cultural factors. Conclusion research is difficult bc going across cultures raises many important issues Threats to validity, theoretical frameworks (construct bias), methods of data collection (method bias), measurement (measurement bias), responses (response bias) and analyzing data and interpreting findings (interpretational even when cultures are compared correctly, there is the additional problem of how we can link the differences to meaningful aspects of culture

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Chapter 2 Cross-Cultural Research Methods Notes and Vocabulary

Course: Cross-Cultural Psychology (21:830:322)

17 Documents
Students shared 17 documents in this course

University: Rutgers University

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Chapter 2: Cross-Cultural Research Methods
Types of Cross-Cultural Research
● First stage involved initial tests of cultural differences and discovery of fascinating
cultural differences. Second stage involved search for meaningful dimensions of cultural
variability that can possibly explain those differences. Third stage involved conceptual
application of those meaningful dimensions in cross-cultural studies. Fourth stage
(currently in) involves empirically applying those dimensions and other possible cultural
explanations of behavior experimentally (not just conceptually) in order to scientifically
document their effects.
● Method validation studies
○ Validity: the degree to which a finding, measurement, or statistic is accurate, or
represents what it is supposed to.
○ Reliability: degree to which a finding, measurement, or statistic is consistent.
○ Research scales that are validated in one culture is not equally valid in another
culture; researchers concerned with equivalence in validity of their measures,
scales, and tests
○ Cross-cultural validation studies
■ Examine whether a scale, test, or measure originally developed in a
culture is valid in another culture
■ Purpose is to establish equivalence of scale/test/measure across cultures
○ Indigenous cultural studies (test for differences in a psychological variable)
■ Rich descriptions of complex theoretical models within a single culture
■ Insights generated from these studies compared across studies/cultures
○ Cross-cultural comparisons (often the hypothesis that one culture will have
significantly higher scores on the variable than the others)
■ Involve participants from two or more cultures who are measured on
some psychological variable of interest
■ Responses obtained from different cultural samples are compared against
each other
Types of cross-cultural comparisons
● Exploratory vs hypothesis testing
○ Exploratory studies - studies designed to examine the existence of cross-cultural
similarities or differences; generally simple, quasi-experimental designs
comparing two or more cultures on a psychological variable
○ Hypothesis-testing studies - designed to test why cultural differences exist. They
go beyond simple quasi-experimental designs by either including context
variables or by using experiments
● Presence or absence of contextual factors
○ Context factors are any variables that can explain, partly or fully, cross-cultural
differences when they are observed in a study; may involve characteristics of the
participants (SES, education, age) or their cultures (economic development and
religious institutions)
● Structure vs level-oriented

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