Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
TOWARDS CROSS-CULTURAL
KNOWLEDGE THROUGH
CROSS-INDIGENOUS METHODS AND
PERSPECTNE*
Virgilio G. Enriquez
Department of Psychology
University of the Philippines
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Psychology as a scientific discipline has been data base of Western psychology is now much
partial to universal findings, o~ at least makes broader.
modest claims to "generalizability". The history It should be stressed however that a broader
of psychology as it has evolved in the West and data base is far from adequate In assuring a uni-
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new at all. Psychologists also talk about phemy in the altar of science.
Korean psychology, French psychology, Issues along this line are not limited to the
Chinese psychology and Indian psychology, for '.Third World countries in relation to the West.
example. What should be made clear however It is also found in' the West as can be gleaned
is that they usually mean psychology in Com- from Graumann's (1972) report as past presi-
munist China or India or France (in the Western dent of the German Society of Psychology on
tradition) and not Chinese psychology or the state of German psychology. He noted
Indian psychology in the Chinese or Indian O'Connell's (1970) perception of " ...a rela-
tradition. It is no surprise then should Western- tively uncritical dependence on American
ers feel at home writing about "psychology of, psychology" as "thriving in Germany today."
by, and for" natives of a Third World country Graumann found this hard to deny because "at
without being immersed in the native culture least 50% (or even more likely 80%) of ill psy-
or at least having learned the local language chologists in the world live in the U.S.A. and
(e.g., Sechrest and Guthrie, 1974). They must a universal psychology as contrasted from the
be referring to Western psychology of, by, and psychology based on generalizations from stu-
for the Third World. All these could very well dies done in industrialized countries. While the
. be a: product of a well-meaning interest in a arguments are forceful and the sentiments real,
former colonial country or a commitment to a "cross-cultural psychology" will continue to
the discipline of psychology but the fact re- be only a promise for as along as the indigenous
mains that the history of psychology has to be psychologies are untapped because of language
rewritten so as to reflect the different bodies of and culture barriers. Ofnecessity, one must chal-
psychological knowledge, formal or informal, lenge the unstated bias in O'Connell's concern
found in the different cultures of the world. If for the German dependence on American
this is not done, what one has, is at best a his- psychology and Graumann's measure for re-
tory of western psychology with the word
"Western" unsaid or unwritten.
acting to this concern. By "psychologist" they
apparently mean someone who has an academic
degree in psychology. A strict adherence to the
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ON THE UNSTATED BIAS OF THE union-card criterion to being a psychologist
"DEPENDENCY AND UNI-NATIONAL would of course exclude not only a sizable
DOMINANCE" VIEW IN PSYCHOLOGY number of eminent thinkers in the Western tra-
dition, or people who happen to . .get their'
- A growing number of social scientists have .degrees in history or anthropology in the spe-
long been wary of the inappropriateness or even cialized West, but also the unwritten but no
patent inapplicability of Western models in the less real psychologies of peoples who may not
Third World setting. The problem can be dif- even have a tradition of publishing journal
ficult or baffling because most of the people articles in psychology to speak of. The validi-
who express this kind of concern are precisely ty of unwritten psychologies does not depend
the Third World social scientists trained in the on the extent and manner of their articulation.
West or the Western tradition. Reservations Graumann's statistics on publications also
range from a call to local adaptation or modifi- imply a regard if not reverence for the printed
cation of Westernmodels to outright charges of or written word. In this'mode of thinking, one
intellectual dependence and academic. im- immediately looks away from cultures with
perialism. However, there are some who ac- unwritten languages and almost unconsciously
knowledge the issues or problems but shrug look up to the university-trained psychologist.
them off on the grounds that there are no other Carl Jung's reminder is appropriate in this con- I
suitable models and concepts to use anyway. In text: "If you want to learn psychology, avoid
addition, there are those who see nothing at the university."
issue at all because they are convinced that any The issues implicit. in the foregoing has
departure from the Western approach is. bias- been illustrated through a narrative on Philip-
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,
• pine and Western psychologiesin contact. For a
background to the cross-indigenous method as a
resource and approach to cross-cultural research
Third World cultures in their own terms as a
natural process and 2) "indigenization" as seen
by people who habitually perceive the Third
one may refer to a previous discussion of psy- World countries as recipients and targets of
chology in the Philippines, indigenous psycho- culture flow. At this point, it should be clear
logy and the Third World (Enriquez, 1977). why Serpell's (1977) use of the notion of cul-
tural validation is preferable not or..ly because
.... INDIGENIZATION FROM WITHIN AS
it moves us away from the political undertones
BASIC TO THE CROSS-INDIGENOUS
of "indigenization" but more so because it
METHOD
leads us to even more fundamental human
The development and utilization of indi- issues. In the area of cross-cultural psychology
genous viewpoints can no doubt be approached Serpell poses the issue as revolving around
in a number of ways. More importantly, it oc- appropriate ways of describing and explain-
curs at many levels and cuts across many discip- ing the behaviour of human beings" (emphasis
lines. What appears to be an isolated develop- added). It can be argued that his use of the
ment in a particular discipline in a particular word "appropriate" advisedly takes the issue
country usually proves to be a part of an over- out of the exclusive arena of psychological and
all pattern. This observation obtains with scientific disputations back to where it belongs:
greater impact in Third World countries where I.e., the philosophy of values.
disciplinallines are not really as sacred as they Figure 2 suggests a model towards uni-
are in the West. versal ps,ychology through a cross-indigenous
An example of a possible approach to indi- perspective. In this model, the different
genization from within is outlined in Figure cultures of the world are tapped as sources of
1. To be sure, there are many ways by cultural knowledge. The resulting pool may
11
,
ers) from the "data-exporter" to the "penny-
collaborator" and "professional overseas re-
are notorious for eating up more time, paper
and ink than necessary. However, Jkislin and
Holwill's (1977) warning against what they call
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searcher."
Brislin and Holwill's (1977) move towards "false etics" goes beyond seniantics. The same
increased cross-cultural understanding in their holds true with Triandis (1972) caution on
study of the insider's view of reactions to the "pseudo-etics," Unfortunately, "going emic"
writings of visiting scholars is not only sugges- on somebody else's "emic" is painfully dif-
tive in "the task of mediating between cul- ficult. It is no different from playing the role of
tures" but also provocative as a step towards a informant without being a culture bearer. For
cross-indigenous perspective. A tactical problem which.reason, one can look at an "imposed
and advantage in Brislin and Holwill's study lies etic" as the strong version while the "etic-
in the fact that the investigators themselves are dimensions-plus-emic-deftniticns approach" as
not culture bearers. It is not altogether easy to the weak version of the pseudo-etic method.
crack the ernie barrier. This is probably the The etic-emic construct covers a lot of
reason why Harris (1976) confused relativism ground both across disciplines (which Brislin
with sollipsism through reasoning by associa- 1975 sees as an advantage) and across levels and
tion in his article which purportedly -discusses extent of explanation (which Serpell 1977 sees
the history and significance of the emic/etic as possibly leading to "over-elastic explana-
tion") as well as across components or con-
ceptually related or associated dimensions; We
CULTURE I CULTURE 2 have the indigenous/exogenous; insider/out-
as source as source sider; particularistic/universalistic; culture-as-.
~ /
target/culture-as-source; and context-bound/
context-free. To this can be added the salient
issues involved in distinguishing the locally
/
CROSS~CULTURAL
!
Identification of key
I indigenous concepts!metho dsl
! theories
I
I
•
1
Semantic elaboration Culture assimilation; indigenous
versions of imported systems
1 r
re-codification1
Indigenous codification or Indigenisation as strategy
Systematization/Explication of
r
Theoretic indigenisation
implied theoretical frameworks
• Application/Use 1 r
Content indigenisation; test
modification; translation of
imported materials
1
EXOCiENOUS
1
EXOCiENOUS
.'
.....
,
.:"
:.. ~ ,
PSYCHOLOGY OF SOURCE
cULTURES
;'1
Etie dimensions plus ernie definitions
.'~;;';l\' '~";':!~L': , .: .r »:
···.·.·l~·.
, CourttryZ' Country n
Cultures-as-recipien ts
.: '. ;,
~ ,.l'
; ~ j
; !,.. <
I."
"
I ~,
L.
I r
r', .
I •
.' }.....s
,. RATIONALE FOR THE INDIGENOUS
METHOD
been tossed about and refined (in certain parti-
cular ways) in the West(from research to thera-
py), does not mean, the Third World researcher
The indigenous method is of course motiva- should learn to do it the western way. (Sec for
ted by the search for universals. As Jacob example, Feliciano, 1965; de Vera, Montano
(1977) in another but similarly motivated con- and Angeles, 1975; de Peralta and Racelis,
.
tified and refined. Even the "simple" task of French as a tourist but another .so use it as a
asking questions can have a variety of para- "-researcher for one's Ph.D. dissertation.
meters to make its use in one situation in the
The idea of cost validity is important. Some
same culture different from its use in an- approaches can be very expensive by Third
other. More so if you have a number of cul- World standards and should be carefully
tural settings involved. Even assuming that the weighed in terms of relative efficiency versus
question are "the same" (after a series of trans- cost and immediacy of need. If the results can
lations, backtranslations, calibration according wait another year, it might even be practical
to functional equivalence, contextualization, from the point ~f view of resource training and
etc.), the answers may lend themselves to a institution building not to rely heavily on ma-
variety of interpretations (See Rubin, 1976 on chines. The Third World's strength is in its
"how to tell when someone is saying 'no" and people.
Torres, 1973 on "the Filipino 'yes' "). Instead of arguing about the relative merits
While people find it easy to appreciate in- of influential methods, the cross-indigenous
digenous concepts (this is by no means a closed
perspective may be viewedin the light of Camp-
issue, (cf, qonifacio, 1976) they show initial
bell and Fiske's (1964) argument for the multi..
puzzlement when the "radical cultural rela-
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the exclusive use of supposedly international velopment: Asian and Americln View&
language "can lead to the neglectof the wealth New York: The Asia Society, 1968, 2~49.
of indigenous concepts and methods embodied CAMPBELL, D. T. and FISKE, D. W.
1964 Covergent and disclrminant validation by
in a language more meaningful to the culture."
the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psy-
She argues that "developing and following a chology Bulletin, 56, 81-105.
Filipino orientation in the conduct of re-
CHAN-Y AP, GLORIA
search and teaching in psychology is not incon-
sistent with the goals of psychology as a science
1973 Chinese influences in the Tagalog language.
Unpublished dissertation. Ateneo de Manila -.
in search for universalities but rather a contri- University.
bution to it." In fact, the cross-indigenous DE PERALTA, PATRICIA and ANGELES D. RAC&
LIS
method better assures generalizability of find-
ings precisely because several languages and cul-
tures are used as sources and bases.The findings
1974 Mga uri ng Pahiwatig. SikolinggwistikaTqf
Filipino. Edited by Virgilio G. Fnriquez
Diliman, Quezon City, University of the
•
of Western based psychology as applied in re- Philippines Press.
search and practice in a Third World country DE VERA, MA GRACIA A, AGNES MONTANO
and EDGARDO A ANGELES
using a Western language and orientation can 1975 Ang metodo ng pagtatanong, Notes pre-
very well be an artifact of the language and pared for Psychology 180 (Social Psycho-
the method. logy). College of Arts and Sciences, Univer-
sity of the Philippines, November 11, 1975.
REFERENCES ENRIQUEZ, VIRGILIO G.
1975 Mga batayan rig sikolohiyang pilipino sa
kultura at kasaysayan General Education
ALFONSO, AMELIA B-. Journal, 29 (First semester, 1975-76),
1977 Towards developing Philippine psychology:-
61-88.
Language-rela ted isllues in teaching and 1975 Developing concepts and approaches in
research. Paper prepared for tbe 'Fourth Philippine psychology.' An ongoing research
Conference of Asian Association of National project supported by National Research
Languages, University of Malaysia, Kuala Council of the Philippines.
Lumpur, Malaysia, April 25-30, 1977. 1977 Filipino psychology in the Third World,
BILMES, JACK PhQippine Journal of Psychology, 10,
1973 Misinformation and ambiguity in verbal (1),3-18.
interaction: A Northern Thai example. FELICIANO, GLORIA
BONIF ACIO, ARMANDO 1965 The limits of Western social research
1976 Hinggil sa kaisipang Pilipino, Ulat ng Unang methods in rural Philippines: The need for
Pambansang Kumperensya sa Sikolohiyang innovation. Liptl1Ul1l I (1), 114-128.
Filipino. Quezon City: Pambansang Sarna- . FORMAN, MICHAEL L.
han sa Sikolohiyang Pilipino, 24-48. 1973 Philippine languages in contact: Honolulu
BORING, EDWARD G. radio station K.LS.A Working Papers in
1929 A History of Experimental Psychology. New Linguistics. Department of Linguistics, Uni-
- York: Appleton Century Crotts. versity of Hawaii 5 (10), 137-15 l.
BRISLIN, RICHARD W. GRAUMANN, CARL E.
1976 Comparative research methodology: Cross- 1972 The state of psychology (part one). Inter-
cultural studies. International Journal of national Journal of Psychology, 7 (2),
l'8ychology, H, 215-249.
- - - and FAHY HOLWILL
1977 Indigenous views of the writing of be-
123-134.
HARRIS, M.
1976 History and significance of the emic/etiC
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havioral social scientists: Towards increased distinction. Annual Review of Anthro-
cross-cultural understanding. International pology, 5, 329-5 O.
Journal ofIntercultural Relations. In press.
JACOB, P.E.
CARREON, MANUEL
1977 Paper included in Bond Without Bond-age.
1923 Philippine Srudies in Mental Measurement.
Honolulu: Culture Learning Institute, East
Nueba York: World Book.
West Center.
CASTlJ.LO, GELLA T. _-
JAHODA, GUSTAV
1968 A view from Southeast Asia. In SEADAG,
. American Research on Southeast Asia De- 1976 In pursuit of the emic-etic distinction: Can
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........
we ever capture it? Symposium on the Im- SECHREST, LEE and GEORGE GUTHRIE
portance of Theory in Cross-Cultural Psy- 1974 Psychology of, by, and for Filipinos. Philip.
chology. Third International Congress pine Studies: Geography, Archaeology, Psy-
IACCP, Tilburg, University of Holland, July chology and Literature. Spechl Report No.
12-16,1976. 10.
1976 Mediating between extremes: An approach SERPELL,ROBERT
to transitional social science plows. Honolu- 1977 Cultural validation of psychology center. A
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