A Plea for a Hypothesis-Generating Approach to Link the Individual's World of Meaning and Society's Cultural Orientation: A Commentary on Oerter et al. (1996)

Abstract

After a brief summary of my understanding of the authors' conceptual framework for cross-cultural comparison, I suggest that the universal levels of conceptualization that the authors claim to exist may be a mere reflection of their conception of human nature which gives a priority to cognitive ability. In order to understand the multiplicity of factors involved in the formation of the individual's world of meanings, including the concept of human beings, a new theoretical framework is proposed. A change from a hypothesis-testing approach to a hypothesis-generating orientation is advocated.