Respond to at least two of your colleagues’ posts with an additional insight and suggest an additional solution to your colleague’s challenge.

Respond to at least two of your colleagues’ posts with an additional insight and suggest an additional solution to your colleague’s challenge.

Note: Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources. Use proper APA format and citations.

Leslie Waller

When looking at three major challenges to conducting cross-cultural research there is a lot to know and understand about the methods in which the research was conducted.

Van de Vijver (2009) explains how some research on cross-cultural studies is exploratory, others look at socialization patterns of religiosity, and finally communication or language. Do the same or similar words translate across cultures.

Understanding the various types of research designs, quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods are described by Leech & Onwuegbuzie (2009).

The various approaches are outlined as quantitative research paradigm was considered research because it was the first research paradigm that incorporated ontological, epistemological, axiological, rhetorical, and methodological assumptions and principles Leech & Onwuegbuzie (2009).

A qualitative design was then used when disputing quantitative design. Later mixed methods were used to combine the methods in which to better incorporate all methods and data.

By looking at multiple factors in research as well as looking at research biases it can be seen where cross-cultural research can be challenging.

As some research may not be legitimized having a practice for how research is set and a set guideline on standards, would help reduce challenges when doing new research.

References

Leech, N. L., & Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2009). A typology of mixed methods research designs. Quality and Quantity, 43(2), 265–275. doi:10.1007/s11135-007-9105-3

Van de Vijver, F. J. R. (2009). Types of comparative studies in cross-cultural psychology. Online readings in psychology and culture, 2(2), pp.1–12.

– Elyssa Frank
Week 9: Discussion 1

One challenge to conducting cross-cultural research is finding culturally suitable testing instruments that provide accurate results.

Specific assessment procedures may be unfamiliar to sample participants (Malda et al., 2008). Furthermore, tests may include cultural terminology unfamiliar to the test-taker. In regards to using cognitive tests to assess children in India, Malda et al. explained, “Cognitive tests of Western origin may be inadequate to assess these children; the cross-cultural suitability of these tests cannot be assumed, is often questionable, and is infrequently studied” (Misra, Sahoo, & Puhan, 1997; as cited in Malda et al., 2008, p. 452).

Secondly, researchers’ inadequate tests will provide biased results (Malda et al., 2008).

Instrument bias occurs when collected information is inaccurately measured due to cultural variations in the assessment (Malda et al., 2008, p. 453). Method bias refers to administering the test, and item bias refer to item-specific misinterpretations across cultures (Malda et al., 2008).

These same biases can be found within Western countries among specific populations even when using Western-style tests.

Third, adaptations used to mitigate testing biases may not be backed by research. Since there adaptation best practices standards are lacking, and little research has been published to guide best practices, the adaptations themselves may produce biased results (Malda et al., 2008).

Therefore, one way to solve the challenges is to adapt the tests using adoption and assembly procedures (Malda et al., 2008).

Malda et al. explained, “Adoption of an instrument comes down to a close translation into the target language and can be used if the purpose of a study is to compare scores across cultures directly” (Van de Vijver, 2003; as cited in Malda et al., 2008, p. 454).

Malda et al. also stated, “Assembly involves the construction of an entirely new instrument, and is usually applied when the translation of an existing instrument would yield an entirely inappropriate measure in the target culture or when the study concerns a new research topic for which no suitable instrument is available yet” (Harkness, Van de Vijver, & Johnson, 2003; as cited in Malda et al., 2008, p. 454). Researchers should have clear objectives that they seek to assess to choose the most appropriate way to adapt their tests.

Reference

Malda, M., Van de Vijver, F. J. R., Srinivasan, K., Transler, C., Sukumar, P., & Rao, K. (2008). Adapting a cognitive test for a different culture: An illustration of qualitative procedures. Psychology Science Quarterly, 50(4), 451–468.

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