Cross-cultural Psychology: What Is It And Why Is It So Important?

Cross-cultural psychology studies differences and similarities between psychological function between groups from different ethnocultures. It is a psychosocial area that focuses on analyzing how belonging to one or another culture affects us.

This discipline also studies the relationship between psychological, sociocultural, biological and ecological factors both intraculturally and interculturally. Therefore, the main objectives of cross-cultural psychology are the following:

• Check psychological models and theories in different cultures.
• Discover cultural and psychological variations that may exist in our own cultural experience.
• Integrate common discoveries to build a more universal psychology.

In addition, two basic aspects must be considered in order to understand cross-cultural psychology. On the one hand, the fact that basic psychological processes (attention, memory, motivation, learning, etc.) are common to all of humanity. On the other hand, culture is the source of the behavioral variation that shapes personal characteristics.

Differences between cross-cultural and cultural psychology

Cultural psychology studies how social traditions and methods change and regulate psychological function. Cross-cultural psychology, on the other hand, believes that due to cultural experiences, there are predictable and significant differences between different ethnocultural groups.

The importance of discipline

According to recent figures, there are 258 million migrants in the world. Of these, 150.3 million migrate for work reasons and 68.5 million because they are forced to do so due to conflicts or human rights violations.

Psychology was born and developed by adopting the perspective of Western culture as a point of reference. This led, in the case of studies of cultures with patterns other than the West, to incorrect interpretations or perspectives in the studies.

One of the factors that makes cross-cultural psychology a relevant component of human knowledge is the ability to relativize and normalize psychosocial patterns that are different from ours when these differences are due to the fact that they come from a different ethnoculture.

Consequences of cross-cultural psychological findings

Today we have a relatively extensive knowledge of what influence a person’s culture exerts at the individual level. Furthermore, regarding the adaptation processes of an individual as a natural mechanism.

Therefore, in the face of the migrant world we live in, and from a humanistic and integrative perspective, we must take into account certain cross-cultural aspects in clinical practice. For example:

Patient information

In addition to the patient’s characteristics, in order to carry out a psychological evaluation or intervention, it is necessary to consider:

Ethnicity

Ethnicity refers to a group of common nationalities, religions or histories. The differences between different ethnic groups help us to understand how people experience different experiences differently. For example, people of Roma ethnicity do not perceive death in the same way as a person of Germanic ethnicity.

Language

The effects of language affect the possibility of interpersonal understanding, through the interpretation of different meanings, to adapt evaluation tests. Therefore, it is important to either master the other language or hire an interpreter to work with people with another language.

Acculturation

Acculturation is the process by which the individual adapts, integrates or adapts to a new culture. In this process, it is important to take into account why the person abandoned their culture, their feelings towards the new culture and even if the change is voluntary or forced.

Cultural experience

Given what ethnicity means in each culture, we get valuable information about how the person can experience a particular culture. For example, a Spanish speaker in Miami will not have the same experience as a Spanish speaker in the UK.

Test domain

This point is especially important in neuropsychological evaluation. For example, in some cultures, people are trained to be effective at different types of cognitive tasks. In this way, we can not always judge people in the same way, for example regarding the time it takes to perform a task.

Ethnic socialization or stereotypical treatment

Some ethnicities are subject to stereotypical ideas about people’s abilities, beliefs and feelings. These ideas must be considered in any evaluation or intervention. This is because they can partly determine patients’ behavior, attitudes and performance abilities.

Evaluation instruments

Construct validity

Many instruments have been developed under the assumption that they are free from cultural influence. However, reality shows that not only knowledge is influenced by culture. Through education, the culture itself “teaches” which skills are relevant and when and how they should be acquired.

In addition , not all psychological constructions manifest themselves in the same way in different cultures. For example, people from a Christian culture will experience guilt in a different way than a Buddhist.

Standardized points

In relation to the previous section, it is of utmost importance to prepare and use validated and graded tests in the relevant cultural population. This is because the average results obtained on a sample from one culture are not applicable to samples from different cultures.

To think about for those who work with cross-cultural psychology

Of equal importance, or of greater importance, are the aspects that professionals must take into account concerning themselves. Among them are the following:

• They must be aware of their own beliefs and assumptions about stereotypes, values ​​and human behavior, and how these can negatively affect psychological practice.

• They must make an effort to understand the different perspectives of culturally diverse patients.

In addition, it is important that professionals know how to get involved. They should strive to perform a sensitive clinical practice with appropriate communication tools and skills when working with culturally diverse populations.