SUBJECT

Cross-Cultural Research

practical

master

Faculty of Education and Psychology

4

Semester 2

Spring semester

Aim of the course:

The seminar provides an introduction to the conceptual system and methods of cultural comparative psychological research. One of the most important aims of the course is the increase of cultural awareness and sensitivity in psychological and cross-cultural  psychological research. One important aspect of the course is that it does not just provide theoretical knowledge, but requires participation in actual researches from data recording to data analysis. Students participate both in quantitative and qualitative data analysis and present the processed data in the end of the seminar.

Learning outcome, competences

knowledge:

• During the course students can learn about how to plan a cultural comparative study andmethodological rules to follow in research.

attitude:

• Students turn towards studying different cultures with interest and openness
• Students respect different values of other cultures
• Students evaluate the results of their researches in a culturally sensitive way

skills:

• Students will be able to plan and conduct culturally sensitive researches
• The cultural understanding of the students will increase
• Students will be able to apply different quantitative and qualitative methods during cross-cultural comparative studies
• The professional language competence of the students improves too

Content of the course

Topics of the course

• Translation, back-translation, linguistic equivalencies
• Sampling in cross-cultural comparative studies
• Cultural differences in response bias
• Examination of structural equivalency
• Qualitative studies in cross-cultural comparison
• Research of the acculturation processes
• Cross-cultural comparative studies with children: methods, methodological questions
• Ethical issues of cross-cultural comparative studies

Learning activities, learning methods

• During the course both work in pairs and individual work is required
• Students process professional literature and prepare a presentation about it
• Students get research assignments they have to work on and make a presentation about

Evaluation of outcomes

Learning requirements, mode of evaluation, criteria of evaluation:

requirements

• The course is worth 4 credits that is equivalent to 120 hours of work, 24 of them contact hours. At the expense of the remaining 96 hours students have to prepare and report of a previously given literature that connects to the topic of the course – compulsory reading (25 hours). Students also complete a given independent project work that relates to the topic of the course (e.g. in-depth interview, content analysis, literature review of a given topic) to the extent of 71hours altogether.

mode of evaluation:

• Students are allowed to miss 25 % of the contact hours at the most. Presence does not contribute to the grade, but it is the criteria of passing the course
• Literature preparation and production of the ppt presentation contribute to the grade in 50 %
• The independent project work contributes to the grade also in 50 %

criteria of evaluation:

• Accomplishment and quality of the assignments

Compulsory reading list

• Nguyen Luu, L.A. és Fülöp, M (szerk.) (2003) Kultúra és pszichológia, Osiris, Budapest. (könyvtárban elérhető)
• Heine, S. (2012). Methods for Studying Culture and Psychology. Pp. 110-151. In: Steven heine, Cultural Psychology, New York: Norton.
• Greenfield, P., M. (2001) Culture as process: empirical methods for cultural psychology. In: J.W. Berry, Y.H. Poortinga, J. Pandey (eds.) Handbook of Cross-Cultural Psychology. Volume 1. Theory and Method. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Pp. 301-346.

Recommended reading list

• Fülöp, M. (2009). Kultúraközi és kulturális pszichológia Magyarországon. Magyar Pszichológiai Szemle, 64, 1, 3-83
• Liamputtong, P. (2008) (Ed.), Doing cross-cultural research: Ethical and methodological perspectives. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.
• Liamputtong, P. (2010) Performing qualitative cross-cultural research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Matsumoto, D., Yoo, S.H. (2006) Toward a new generation of cross-cultural research. Perspectives in Psychological Science, 1, 234-250
• Pareek, Udai & Rao, Venkateswara (1980). Cross-cultural surveys and interviewing. In Harry Triandis & John Berry (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology, Vol. 2 (pp.127-180). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.