Mainstreaming culture in psychology

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cultural Psychology
• International Psychology

Background:

• International psychology has been historically marginalized within psychological science.
• There is a growing recognition of culture's importance in psychology, particularly in North America.
• The development of international and cross-cultural psychology is linked to personal and professional experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To advocate for the mainstreaming of culture within psychology's epistemological framework.
• To highlight the limitations of solely etic or emic approaches in cross-cultural research.
• To propose a combined emic-etic strategy for a more inclusive psychological science.

Main Methods:

• Review of personal and professional experiences in international/cross-cultural psychology.
• Analysis of research in cross-cultural personality assessment.
• Conceptual framework drawing parallels with gender mainstreaming.

Main Results:

• Sole reliance on etic or emic approaches is inadequate for cross-cultural assessment.
• A combined emic-etic approach effectively bridges global and local psychological experiences.
• Acknowledging both universals and specifics is crucial for integrating culture into psychology.

Conclusions:

• There is a need to integrate culture into the core of psychological science.
• A culturally informed universal knowledge base is necessary for psychology.
• Psychology curricula and textbooks should incorporate cross-cultural perspectives.