• Cross-cultural psychology studies variations in human behavior influenced by cultural context.
• Definitions highlight key aspects: comparison of psychological variables under different cultural conditions, identification of causes of behavior differences, and the interactive relationship between culture and behavior.
• Culture is defined as the shared way of life of a group of people.
• Core issues include distinguishing culture and behavior and understanding their relationship.
• Cross-cultural psychology encompasses both culture-comparative and cultural perspectives.
• It examines both diversity and uniformity in human psychology.
• Considers contextual variables like biological and ecological factors.
• Not limited to cross-national comparisons; includes studies within a single nation state of various ethnocultural groups.
• Focuses on intercultural behavior resulting from contact between cultures and ongoing changes.
• General definition: study of similarities and differences in individual psychological functioning across various cultural and ethnocultural groups; relationships between psychological variables and socio-cultural, ecological, and biological factors; and ongoing changes in these variables.

• Cross-cultural psychology aims to test the generality of existing psychological knowledge and theories.
• Known as the transport and test goal, it involves transferring hypotheses to different cultural settings to assess their validity and applicability.
• Another goal is to explore cultural variations not present in one’s own culture, beyond mere failure to replicate findings.
• This exploration leads to a deeper understanding of cultural influences on behavior.
• The ultimate goal is to integrate findings from various cultures into a more universal psychology.
• It is assumed that there are underlying universal psychological processes across human cultures.
• Three theoretical orientations in cross-cultural psychology are absolutism, relativism, and universalism.
• Absolutism assumes psychological phenomena are the same across cultures.
• Relativism holds that all human behavior is culturally patterned and comparisons are problematic.
• Universalism assumes common basic psychological processes but acknowledges cultural variations in behavior.
• Universalism seeks to understand cultural influences on behavioral diversity and allows for comparisons across cultures.

• Cross-cultural psychology is international and interdisciplinary, drawing from fields such as anthropology, biology, ecology, linguistics, sociology, and psychology.
• It aims to establish systematic relationships between population-level data and individual psychological data.
• Avoids reductionism by recognizing phenomena at different levels of analysis (e.g., cultural, psychological, biological).
• Population-level disciplines (e.g., anthropology) focus on understanding whole populations, while psychology focuses on individual-level phenomena.
• Anthropologists tend to adopt naturalistic approaches, while psychologists often use experimental methods.
• Bridging between naturalism and experimentation is crucial for interdisciplinary understanding.
• Jahoda’s analyses explore the historical relationship between anthropology and psychology, highlighting periods of interaction and neglect/hostility.
• Recent decades have seen increased collaboration between anthropologists and psychologists, particularly in areas like psychological anthropology.

• Ethnocentrism is the differential evaluation of differences between groups, often leading to viewing one’s own group as superior.
• It involves using one’s own group’s standards as the standard when evaluating other groups.
• Ethnocentrism can lead to incorrect interpretations of behavior, affect instrument design, influence choice of research topics, and bias formulation of theories.
• Cross-cultural psychology aims to reduce ethnocentrism by recognizing the limitations of current knowledge and seeking to extend data and theory through inclusion of other cultures.
• Campbell’s proposal suggests carrying out cross-cultural research projects four times to distinguish between differences arising from researcher bias and actual cultural differences.
• While principles of behavior with universal validity can be formulated, psychology remains Western-centric until alternative approaches from other cultures are extensively tested.
• Indigenous psychologies offer non-Western approaches, but their impact on psychology as a science is limited due to scientific colonialism.
• The extent of scientific colonialism in psychology is significant, making it challenging to remedy and reflecting limitations in contemporary psychological knowledge.

• The ecocultural framework provides a conceptual scheme for understanding the relationships between ecological, cultural, and individual-level variables in cross-cultural psychology.
• Derived from the work of Malinowski and Rivers, it proposes linkages between ecology, culture, and behavior.
• The framework distinguishes between population-level variables (left) and individual-level outcomes (right), with a flow from left to right representing influences on individual behavior.
• Feedback relationships are acknowledged, although only two are illustrated in the framework.
• Ecological context encompasses the setting where human organisms interact with the physical environment, influencing cultural and psychological development.
• Economic activity is a central feature of the ecological context, with different forms of economic activity implying varying cultural, biological, and psychological outcomes.
• Adaptation at the population level involves considering both cultural and biological influences on behavior.
• Process variables include genetic and cultural transmission, as well as acculturation resulting from culture contact.
• Not all outcomes are mediated by ecological relationships; some are direct and immediate, such as environmental learning or nutritional deficiency.
• Individuals can recognize, screen, appraise, and alter influences, leading to wide individual differences in psychological outcomes.
• The ecocultural framework helps account for both differences and similarities in psychological characteristics within and across groups.

Conclusion