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Cross-Cultural Research

Cross-cultural researchers examine differences and similarities between different groups in society. A concern with culture and cross-cultural research permeates a range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics, cultural studies, and social work. However, within and across disciplines, there is controversy over the meaning of the term culture. Some researchers have interpreted it as referring to the set of values, beliefs, and concepts that a group shares. Others believe that this approach is essentialist; that is, it assumes that cultures determine how people behave and leaves them no agency in their own lives. They prefer to see the term culture as a heuristic device that allows researchers to interpret and understand behavior and to situate it in context. This allows researchers to investigate social life in practice in a way that does not assume that belonging to any group is unchanging or means the same thing to everyone.

Part of the difficulty in defining and separating cultures is that what they consist of can be based on a variety of characteristics, including race, gender, and age. There has been interesting research, for example, on youth culture, lesbian culture, and drug and gang culture. Cross-cultural research in these examples would refer to behavior and beliefs characterized by age, sexuality, and lifestyle. However, cross-cultural research is often seen as being about race, ethnicity, and (more recently) religious differences.

Even when a particular characteristic is the focus of research, there is no one set of perspectives within that culture that can be used to define what belonging to the group would involve. For example, what it means to belong to Indian culture may vary according to time of migration, age, where someone was born, gender, religious beliefs, and sexuality. What it means to belong may also depend on context in that characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, and age used to define culture might not always be relevant to how we think or behave. For example, being Catholic or Greek sometimes may influence what we say or do, whereas at other times it might not. Part of the context in which decisions about the nature of belonging to a group, or the group's significance, is informed by who is listening (i.e., the audience) and by the context of discussion.

Cross-Cultural Research: Doing It Yourself

Researchers have studied cultures using a variety of methods, including interviews and ethnographies. Interviews are usually loosely structured to allow participants to put forward their concerns and perspectives. Interviewers can use a variety of theoretical approaches to inform their interviewing, including the increasing use of biographical narrative theories to situate lives within the context of the culture they are examining. This involves asking people to talk about their life histories as well as their everyday lives and experiences. There is also an interest in reflecting on the role of researchers and participants in research findings and how people from other cultures are presented by researchers. For example, the influences of ethnicity, gender, and religion during the interview process are put under scrutiny.

Some of the issues addressed by cross-cultural interviewers are also of concern to ethnographers, and ethnographers may use interviews to collect some of their data. Ethnography is a method by which researchers participate, in varying degrees, in the lives of people they are studying to collect data. They immerse themselves in the culture of others to try to see it from the “inside.” There are differing views about the period of time needed to study a culture in this way as well as the status of the findings. Some researchers believe that it is a way of finding “the truth” about a culture, whereas others suggest that it provides valuable data but is still dependent on the perspectives of those involved. Increasingly, ethnographers are situating their perspectives, values, and beliefs within their ethnographies to seek to understand how they define people as belonging to other cultures. The debates on the status of ethnography include the difficulties (already discussed) in dividing cultures and insiders from outsiders, the time needed to learn about differences within cultures, and concerns about the ethics of this kind of research. Due to the constant involvement of researchers in the lives of others, there are concerns about participants becoming vulnerable as a result, for example, of not being constantly aware that they are talking to a researcher who is not necessarily a member of their culture.

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