European Journal of Scientific Research - EuroJournals

The Input of Psychology in Methodological Considerations of
Cross Cultural Marketing Research 250
samples of Europe and North America (Price-Williams, 1969). They wanted to investigate the
generisability or variability of certain psychological characteristics. In other words, they wanted to
"demonstrate the effect of culture or demonstrate that culture does not matter" (Strodtbeck, 1964, p.
224). This concerns such fundamental questions as the extent of biological dispositions of mankind and
the extent of susceptibility to learning influences (Price-Williams, 1969).
In addition, psychologists wanted to examine causal relationships between certain ecological
and societal factors and the variability in psychological processes in different cultures. It was,
therefore, necessary to examine a vast array of possible factors, such as the physical environment,
child-raring techniques, degrees of literacy, and the organisation in social, economic and religious
spheres (Price-Williams, 1969).
The progress of cross-cultural studies has been right across the gamut of psychology, from
relatively 'molecular' aspects of behaviour, such as those involved in perceptual processes, to relatively
'molar' concepts of personalities and attitudes (Price-Williams, 1969). As a result, psychologists from
all disciplines have started getting involved in this type of research.
Cross-cultural research involves a big variety of methodologies. There is the laboratory-type
research, whose only difference from traditional laboratory experimentation lies in the fact that it is
conducted in a different cultural context. There are observational studies where often these studies are
made with the investigator stepping out of his country, indeed out of his library (field studies).
Moreover, sometimes the basic data of which have been collected previously by other people are
analysed together by third person(s) (documentary studies). Sometimes collaborators in many countries
co-operate to attack the same problem (Price-Williams, 1969).
Designing a marketing research to produce unambiguous findings is not easy (Reynolds, 2000).
It is difficult even when the study is done in the investigator' s on society, where the marketing
researcher knows the language, is knowledgeable about prevailing attitudes, is using measuring
instruments of known reliability, and is able to detect subtle cues in the behaviour of the subject. The
problems confronting cross-cultural psychologists are even more complicated (Segall et al., 1990); and
these problems and difficulties of conducting research outside the traditional confines of one's own
laboratory and one's own culture have attracted much attention.
All the methods that are often used in cross-cultural psychology can be applied in connection
with the different marketing research goals. The use of each possible method presents its particular
difficulties and requirements. Most methodological considerations, however, which are characteristic
of cross-cultural research are relevant to all of them and are therefore going to be presented here
without specific reference to a particular method (Duijker & Rokkan, 1954).
Designing the study
The marketing researcher has to take into consideration a number of difficulties adapted from
psychology when designing a cross-cultural study. First of all, it is important to achieve equivalence of
the phenomena under investigation. Berry and Dasen (1974) suggested three kinds of cross-cultural
psychology equivalence: functional, conceptual and metric equivalence. Functional equivalence is
necessary because classification and interpretation of behaviours may vary from culture to culture.
Thus, it might be inappropriate to study the same behaviours in two or more different societies. One
might in fact have to study different behaviours in order to study the same psychological phenomenon
(Segall et al., 1990). One way to overcome this problem is by participant observation, employment of
local people to serve as informed observers, and local test construction (Segall et al., 1990).
Moreover, different cultures may have different conceptual systems, so conceptual equivalence
has to be met as well (Frijda & Jahoda, 1969). Sears (1961) argued that the meaning of research
materials (stimuli, concepts, etc.) or of behaviour must be equivalent before comparison is possible. A
number of attempts have been made to operationalise this requirement. The most common one is the
use of forward and back translations of words, sentences and test items to demonstrate translation