Cross-Cultural Psychology: An Eclectic and Idiosyncratic View

Abstract

The paper argues that cross-cultural psychology is not a discipline within the broad field of psychology but an approach to the subject. It describes briefly some of the applications of this approach to the studies of perception and traces the effects and possible effects of these on psychology in general and on further crosscultural works.

Although applications of psychology are recognized as important, the paper is primarily concerned with theoretical issues and draws especial attention to the benefits which may accrue from symbiosis between cross-cultural psychology and ethnography. Some of the hostile reactions which cross-cultural psychology occasionally provokes are briefly dealt with.