Cross-Cultural Equivalences

Abstract

During the past three decades, the use of comparative studies has experienced a steady increase in many areas such as psychology, management, education and political sciences (Van de Vijver and Leung, 1997a). Most research was undertaken to make comparisons based on national cultures or ethno-cultures. In cross-cultural research, the subjects are not assigned randomly to a cultural group like in true experimental designs, where the independent variable (treatment) is fully manipulated by the researcher. Hence, cross-cultural studies are seen as quasi-experiments and culture is regarded as an independent variable (Van de Vijver and Leung, 1997a,b, 2011).