Abstract
The Cultural Grid suggests a structure for interpreting a person's behavior in the context of culturally learned expectations. When two persons' expectations are similar, but their behaviors are dissimilar, cross cultural misunderstanding is likely to result. When their expectations are dissimilar, the result is likely to be a personal misunderstanding even though their behaviors are similar. This article introduces a framework for differentiating ‘personal’ and ‘cultural’ differences in the interview which is essential for appropriate multicultural counseling. The alternatives are to allow apparent and obvious ‘cultural’ differences to mask underlying personal differences or to incorrectly assume that two persons who appear culturally similar are having a personal disagreement.
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Pedersen, A., Pedersen, P. The cultural grid: A framework for multicultural counseling. Int J Adv Counselling 12, 299–307 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00123258
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00123258