Cross-cultural research has produced a number of problematical cor
relations between personality and cultural variables Efforts to explain these
correlational relationships have been hampered by the old causality dif
ficulty—that association does not yield knowledge of cause. Interpretation
of these statistical relationships requires access to other kinds of information.
Evidence is gathered here from psychological research to support certain
explanations of perceptual illusions, infant growth, and initiation ceremonies.
The cross-disciplinary analyses provide a broader empirical base for ac
ceptance or rejection of cross-cultural theories.
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