Little is known of the ways that individual-cultural transactions affect the mental health of older adults, particularly those residing in rural environments. Using race and ethnicity as primary cultural constructs, this article describes why it is important to “unpack” the usual definers of culture and mental health to understand their multiple meanings for individuals targeted by rural researchers and practitioners. Three psychological approaches of great promise for this effort are illustrated. These include Phinney's focus on multiple meanings of ethnicity within the developing individual, Kleinman's ethnopsychiatric research examining how local cultures actively shape the experience and interpretation of illness (as distinct from disease), and Gutmann's theory of geropsychiatric pathology linking culturation and deculturation to healthy and degradative psychological outcomes among older adults. Implications of the work of these three researchers for rural mental health researchers and practitioners are offered.
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