Chapter 1
It is important to note that the first chapter raises the issue that common problems, such as natural disasters, affect people regardless of their culture. Accordingly, representatives of all cultures need psychological assistance. Fred Blemak presented methods of assistance based on psychological bereavement (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). However, a number of important questions arise about how effective these methods are with different groups of people, depending on their backgrounds and culture. I realized that there are reasons to be skeptical because most psychological research is conducted in English and does not take into account the cultural characteristics of certain populations. However, given the problem, the goal of intercultural psychology is to identify similarities and differences between people and strike a balance with them.
Moreover, I argued that cross-cultural psychology not only studies the influence of culture on people’s psychology but also compares them in order to establish the reasons for differences. Furthermore, cross-cultural psychology is also needed to find commonalities between different cultures and use them to bring them closer together and form common values (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). I also discovered the difference between intercultural psychology and cultural psychology. Cultural psychology, unlike intercultural psychology, aims to study the behavior of people in a closed space and does not aim to compare with other cultures.
In addition, I studied the value of using terms such as culture, race, ethnicity, and society in researching the psychology of various groups. That is because they have their own sets of rules that have been formed over the centuries and affect not only their understanding of themselves but also their perception of the world around them (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Thus, these concepts need to be considered in order to establish the reasons for the emergence of certain peculiarities in various cultures.
Chapter 2
An essential element of intercultural psychology is the thinking of individuals. Accordingly, critical thinking is also different for people from different cultural groups. Thus, it is necessary to establish the principles of thinking of different peoples and their catalysts (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). For example, I was interested in a study where a group of psychologists tried to find psychological and behavioral similarities and differences between arranged and unarranged marriages. They chose to study people of Indian descent living in the United States. The results of the study showed that in this cultural group, the results were similar due to the fact that Americans of Indian descent, before marriage, had the power to refuse an arranged marriage (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Thus, such studies allow us to establish the norms that exist in various cultural groups and compare them.
Other methods can also be used to understand the specifics of cultural groups. For example, I understood the principles of naturalistic observation. That is, finding certain special features in the culture of people in their natural environment. Although there are also methods of scientific intercultural observation, this requires laboratory conditions (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Moreover, I have studied different approaches to observation, such as structured and unstructured. In a structured approach, the researchers conducting the study have a specific plan to compare different features. In contrast, the unstructured approach is free-form, as it examines the behavior of people in general and then, using the method of comparison, identifies certain features of specific groups (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Accordingly, I realized that there are different methods of conducting psychological research in an intercultural environment. This knowledge is also relevant for understanding change and its application to people from various backgrounds.
Chapter 3
I recognized the four primary goals of study in cross-cultural psychology: description, explanation, forecasting, and management. Therefore, these goals significantly affect the choice of research methods. Consequently, depending on the ultimate goal of researchers, research methods in cross-cultural psychology can be categorized into two types: quantitative and qualitative (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Accordingly, I argue that quantitative studies in cross-cultural psychology suggest measures of specific dimensions of human functioning from a comparative standpoint. Furthermore, these studies require empirically interrupted change. This makes quantitative research reliable because it excludes the use of researchers’ beliefs or prejudices as intuition in research projects (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Moreover, among the statistical techniques used in cross-cultural psychology that are considered of the greatest value are correlational approaches. These establish the relationships of two or more categories of variables.
In addition, I learned about the peculiarities of conducting qualitative research in a cross-cultural environment. They are conducted mainly in the natural environment and do not aim to measure precise data and variables. I realized they are used when variables are not fully conceptualized or operationally defined. The qualitative approach can be beneficial when the background experiences and priorities of participants in the study are strongly affected by the study (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Thus, I realized the importance of choosing an appropriate research strategy to establish the final result. Meanwhile, cross-cultural psychologists use all the standard tools of psychological research: observation, interviewing, experimentation, content analysis, psychobiography, meta-analysis, and focus groups (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). This is necessary in order to study different variables and compare them, and this often cannot be done using only one method. Moreover, I learned that translating research into different languages has many challenges, especially if one needs to integrate data from rare languages and cultural dialects. Accordingly, it is essential to make sure that the translated version of the methodology is as close to the original as attainable.
Chapter 4
Meanwhile, I have found that environmental interactions create insight by creating perceptual assumptions. These expectations vary from different cultures and permit humans to imagine what they will be confronted with. This explains why certain reflexes, such as reaction time, are enhanced in individuals from further cultures depending on the environment or place of residence (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Moreover, I learned that culture-specific circumstances define which skills individuals will evolve in a specific context and which will stay undeveloped. Psychologists have advanced several speculations to describe cultural variation in the vulnerability to illusions (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). I learned about the carpenters’ world theory, which reasons that humans who were raised in an environment formed by carpenters interpret oblong shapes as reflections of rectangular ones.
However, I also discovered that people from different cultural backgrounds have similar general mechanisms of perception. For instance, the perception of beauty was found to be very similar in different social groups and cultures (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). This can be defined by the fact that although traditional music from diverse cultures may differ in representation and harmony, similarities in the aesthetics and physicality of the human senses render sense experience and its delivery common. Furthermore, I will discuss the process of consciousness and how the understanding of it differs from culture to culture. From a cultural perspective, the proper stream of consciousness channels behavior in ways that are appropriate to a particular physical and social environment, while individual awareness depends on the experiences of socialization (Shiraev & Levy, 2017). Consequently, consciousness is influenced not only by cultural characteristics but also by people’s lifestyles, which ultimately leads to psychological distinctions in different cultural contexts.
Reference
Shiraev, E. B., & Levy, D. A. (2017). Cross-cultural psychology: Critical thinking and contemporary applications (6th ed.). Routledge.