Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Abstract

Nearly all of what we know as scientific psychology has been developed in Western cultures. In decades following World War II most of psychological research was conducted in United States. Today 80 percent of psychology textbooks used in countries as diverse as India and West Germany are still written and published in America. Although narrow focus on work by and about white, middle-class Caucasians is changing, fact remains that domination of one cultural group has crippled a discipline that aims to explain general human behavior. Hence importance of these essays, which examine recent developments in psychology and alert main-stream social scientists to limitations of their work.Editor John J. Berman notes in his introduction that some of the very best representatives of major areas of psychology have contributed to Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Gustav Jahoda of University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, traces conceptual roots of psychology from eighteenth century to twentieth. Harry C. Triandis of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, shows degree to which a society's emphasis on individualism or collectivism influences social behavior. Cigdem Kagitcibasi of Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey, recognizing Western psychologists' tendency to highlight individual, offers a synthesis of work done so far on family and on child-rearing practices. John Berry of Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, seeks to understand changes and constants in behavior that occur when a person moves from one culture to another. Juris G. Draguns of Pennsylvania State University at University Park addresses topic of abnormal behavior from a perspective. Michael Cole of University of California, San Diego, arguing that all psychology should be cross-cultural and that such a distinction should not be necessary, looks to a future when practical, everyday activities are studied rather than artificially contrived laboratory experiments. Clearly, this volume will be of interest not only to clinical, cognitive, and developmental psychologists and researchers but also to cosmopolitan lay readers.

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