The psychological measurement of cultural syndromes

An examination of a range of definitions of culture indicates that almost all researchers agree that culture is reflected in shared cognitions, standard operating procedures, and unexamined assumptions. Cultural syndromes consist of shared attitudes, beliefs, norms, role and self definitions, and values of members of each culture that are organized around a theme. Two methods of measurement of syndromes that allow the examination of the convergence of the data from each method in each culture are (a) the identification of questionnaire items to which an arbitrary 90% of each sample responds on the same side of the neutral point and (b) the identification of items to which an arbitrary 90% of triads-consisting of members of each culture-agree among themselves in Sewer than 60 seconds on the appropriate response to the item. The shorter the time to reach agreement, the more likely it is that the item is an element of culture. Examples of these approaches are presented, and discussion focuses on how to obtain good descriptions of cultures through psychological methods.