Measurement in Cross-Cultural Psychology

Abstract

Notions of equivalence in cross-cultural measurement were related to the abstraction-concreteness and the universality-cultural difference continua. Various methods proposed for attaining satisfactory measurement were reviewed and compared within this framework. Each strategy has its own merits and shortcomings. Moreover, the level of cross-cultural equivalence presupposed, the type of equivalence demonstrated and/or improved, and the equivalence assumptions doubted or explicitly rejected are different for different strategies. It was suggested that the strategies are complementary to each other. More than one strategy should be employed and combined for more meaningful and precise measurement.