Culture and Basic Psychological Processes

Kitayama

Oyserman, Coon, and Kenmielmeier (in press) provide a most comprehensive review of empirical studies that use attitudinal surveys to capture cultural variations in individualism and collectivism. This paper suggests that the cross-cultural validity of attitudinal surveys can no longer be taken for granted. Moreover, the meta-theory underlying this literature (called the entity view of culture) is called into question. The author presents an alternative meta-theory (called the system view of culture) and discusses its implications for future work in cultural and cross-cultural psychology.