The SAGE Handbook of

Qualitative
Research in Psychology

Edited by
Carla Willig and Wendy Stainton-Rogers

Editorial arrangement and Chapters 1 and 33 Carla Willig and Wendy

Stainton-Rogers 2008
Chapter 2 Christine Griffin & Andrew Bengry-Howell 2008
Chapter 3 Carolyn Kagan, Mark Burton & Asiya Siddiquee 2008
Chapter 4 Sue Wilkinson & Celia Kitzinger 2008
Chapter 5 Sally Wiggins & Jonathan Potter 2008
Chapter 6 Michael Arribas-Ayllon & Valerie Walkerdine 2008
Chapter 7 Stephen Frosh & Lisa Saville Young 2008
Chapter 8 Niamh Stephenson & Susan Kippax 2008

Chapter 9 David Hiles & Ivo Cermk

2008
Chapter 10 Amedeo P. Giorgi & Barbro Giorgi 2008
Chapter 11 Virginia Eatough & Jonathan A. Smith 2008
Chapter 12 Uwe Flick & Juliet Foster 2008
Chapter 13 Paul Stenner, Simon Watts & Marcia Worrell 2008
Chapter 14 Kathy Charmaz & Karen Henwood 2008
Chapter 15 Svend Brinkmann & Steinar Kvale 2008
Chapter 16 Mary Gergen 2008
Chapter 17 Paula Reavey & Katherine Johnson 2008

Chapter 18 Alison Evans, Jonathan Elford & Dick Wiggins 2008

Chapter 19 Christina Silver & Nigel Fielding 2008
Chapter 20 Lucy Yardley & Felicity Bishop 2008
Chapter 21 Steven D. Brown & Abigail Locke 2008
Chapter 22 Kerry Chamberlain & Michael Murray 2008
Chapter 23 Erica Burman 2008
Chapter 24 David Harper 2008
Chapter 25 Joseph G. Ponterotto, Geena Kuriakose & Yevgeniya
Granovskaya 2008
Chapter 26 Andy Miller, Tom Billington, Victoria Lewis &
Lisa DeSouza 2008
Chapter 27 Jo Silvester 2008
Chapter 28 Peter Banister 2008
Chapter 29 Carrie E. Hanlin, Kimberly Bess, Patricia Conway, Scotney
D. Evans, Diana McCown, Isaac Prilleltensky & Douglas D. Perkins 2008
Chapter 30 Leslie Swartz & Poul Rohleder 2008
Chapter 31 Thomas C. Ormerod & Linden J. Ball 2008
Chapter 32 Catriona Macleod & Sunil Bhatia 2008

First published 2008

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30
Cultural Psychology
Leslie Swartz and Poul Rohleder

INTRODUCTION
Social scientists have been interested in the
concept of culture for a long time. The concept of culture of what it is and where it is
situated is a complex one. For many years,
culture was seen as explicit and observable
in group and individual activities (Berry,
2000). More recently, culture is seen to
include implicit, symbolic meanings underlying behaviour. Helman (1994) describes
culture as a
set of guidelines (both explicit and implicit) which
individuals inherit as members of a particular society, and which tells them how to view the world,
how to experience it emotionally, and how to
behave in it in relation to other people, to supernatural forces or gods, and to the natural environment.
It also provides them with a way of transmitting
these guidelines to the next generation by the
use of symbols, language, art and ritual.
Helman (1994: 23; emphasis in original)

We can therefore see culture as a set of rules

and guidelines that inform society about ways
in which to experience and behave in the
world. These rules can be transmitted and
changed over time, and culture is not static.

The commonly held idea that a person or group

has a culture which is fixed and unchanging, is not supported by the complex and
flexible ways in which people live their lives.
There are two general approaches to cultural psychology. In the first view, people
see cultural psychology as a discipline on
its own, separate from other approaches to
psychology, such as social psychology, for
example. In the second view, cultural psychology is seen not as an approach which
competes with other branches of psychology, but more as a lens through which we
can try to understand people a particular emphasis and concern within psychological research as a whole. For reasons
which will become clear, we prefer this latter approach, and this chapter should be read
alongside those on community psychology
(see Chapter 29), and postcolonialism and
psychology (see Chapter 32). In an important founding essay in the history of cultural
psychology, Shweder (1990: 1) described
cultural psychology in this way:
Cultural psychology is the study of the way
cultural traditions and social practices regulate,
express, transform, and permute the human

542

APPLICATIONS

psyche, resulting less in psychic unity for humankind

than in ethnic divergences in mind, self and emotion. Cultural psychology is the study of the ways
subject and object, self and other, psyche and
culture, person and context, gure and ground,
practitioner and practice live together, require each
other, and, dynamically, dialectically, and jointly
make each other up.

This locates cultural psychology firmly as an

interpretive discipline, deeply interested in
the importance of context for meaning, and in
the ways in which meaning is constructed and
shifts and changes depending on both local
contexts and more distant ones such as those
of history and broader influences of globalization, international trade and exchange,
and even the simultaneously very local and
broadly global influence of new technologies
like the internet.
As an orientation to cultural psychology,
we begin the chapter with a brief outline of the historical development in cultural psychology, starting with a universalist
approach, through relativism to a view that
everything is culturally situated. We then
discuss some of the issues that arise when
conducting research which takes culture into
account. Table 30.1 gives just a few examples
of some recent research studies, using different qualitative research methods. We will
refer to some of these studies in our discussion of research issues. We also will take a
closer look at the issue of language diversity
in cultural psychology, and the use of translation and interpretation. Some text boxes
give some guidelines to follow in research.
Table 30.1

Finally, we speculate on some future developments in methods in cultural psychology.

APPROACHES TO UNDERSTANDING
CULTURE
There are many approaches to studying and
understanding culture. We will here discuss
universalist approaches to culture and psychology, then relativism, critical approaches,
and, finally, indigenous psychologies.

Universalism
A universalist approach to culture and psychology presupposes that psychological concepts are universal; that is they are found
transculturally. The job of psychology, in this
universalist model, is essentially to strip away
the distracting local forms in which the real,
or universal, phenomenon is hidden. For
example, researchers, mostly from Western
systems of thought, would attempt to determine whether psychological phenomena, for
example depression, exist in other cultures.
Universalists would thus try to show for
example that a person in Harare, Zimbabwe,
who complains of somatic pain and thinking too much (Abas, Broadhead, Mbape and
Khumalo-Sakatukwa, 1994), may be actually
considered to be depressed, in the same way
that someone in London who complains of
low mood may be considered depressed. To a
universalist, the key issue here is the depression, seen to be common in both contexts;

Examples of qualitative research in cultural psychology

Methods used

Sources of data

Example studies

Discourse analysis

Written texts; group talk; interviews

Candela (2005); Keller et al. (2004); Kirschner (2006)

Foucauldian discourse analysis

Interviews

Yen and Wilbraham (2003a, 2003b)

Narrative analysis

Interviews; autobiography

Langhout (2005); Tappan (2005)

Ethnography

Group conversations; participant

observation; interviews

Bedford (2004); Estroff (1985); Fadiman (1997)

Grounded theory

In-depth interviews

Gilchrist and Sullivan (2006)

Participatory action research

Texts; drawings

Mohatt et al. (2004); Rohleder et al. (in press b)

Case study

Observation; interview

Kpping (2005); Lawrence, Dodds and

Valsiner (2004)

Social representations

Content analysis of print media

Schmitz, Filippone and Edelman (2003)

CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

the somatic pain and thinking too much hides

the phenomenon of depression in Zimbabwe
from the view of the untrained westerner.
Traditionally, universalist approaches have
tended to adopt a quantitative approach to
methods, focusing on the development of
scales which are presumed to measure universal constructs which may appear somewhat differently in different cultural contexts,
but which are amenable to essentially the
same measuring instruments. For example,
there are many locally translated versions
of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI),
all of which measure a supposedly universal construct depression. In various local
translations of the BDI, though, idiomatic
expressions from the original version may be
translated in such a way as to avoid the use of
confusing idiomatic language for example,
the original BDI has a question concerning
whether the person feels blue or sad. The
term blue, in the universalist model, must
not be translated literally as it will obscure
the true meaning behind the idiomatic term
(Drennan, Levett and Swartz, 1991).
Where do the universals of psychology
come from, though? Universalist approaches
may hide an implicit evolutionism which
claims Western culture as top of a pyramid.
In this view, westerners (and Western psychologists) know, and understand the real
phenomena; and our job is to look for the
ways in which these universals, very clear
in our own culture, are hidden by the cultural practices of others. Not only that, the
psychological and emotional worlds of westerners are seen implicitly and explicitly as the
peak of human cultural development; other
cultural groups are seen as moving along
a continuum towards this peak. In the field
of mental health for example, Western diagnostic systems may uncritically be used as
the standard, representing the core syndromes
which may manifest with some variation
across cultures. Kleinman (1977) argued that
this universalist psychiatry imposed Western
models of psychiatric illness across cultures,
failing to take into account the actual experiences of distress and suffering of the people
they were studying. The result was to look

543

for a limited range of diagnostic symptoms,

rather than explore the emotional experiences
of the people being treated or studied.
It is possible methodologically to interrogate the assumptions behind the universalist
approach. In South Africa, for example, Yen
and Wilbraham (2003a) used discourse analysis to explore talk around culture and mental
illness in interviews with psychiatrists, psychologists and traditional healers. They found
that discussions around cultural illnesses,
which were understood as a form of distress
unique to African patients, was constructed as
a less severe variation of Western psychiatric
disorders, thus re-inscribing the universals
of psychiatric disorder (Yen and Wilbraham,
2003a: 552). By using the critical methodological stance of discourse analysis, they
could begin to view even diagnostic categories, which are sometimes thought to refer
to states of nature, as texts open to scrutiny.

Relativism
Relativism focuses largely on the idea of
mutually incommensurable separate cultures.
This is the approach of cross-cultural psychology, which remains a dominant field
today. Context is seen as important, and all
psychological phenomena need to be understood within context. Universal meanings
cannot simply be extracted from data without
referring to context.
A key method used in relativist understandings of the world is that of ethnography.
There have been many classic accounts of
how societies and groups work which underscore a relativist approach the implicit aim
of many of these accounts is to discover
and explore the internal logic of apparently
strange societies and practices, even when
these appear illogical and inexplicable at first
blush. The work of ethnographers such as
Margaret Mead (1928) and Melford Spiro
(1982), for example, which involved the
interpretation of notes taken from extensive
field-work over a long time, have contributed
to ongoing questions about the cultural specificity or otherwise of many developmental
theories (including psychoanalysis).

544

APPLICATIONS

One challenge associated with classical

ethnography is that it is extremely timeconsuming and not altogether practical in
terms of rapid production of research data. It
is also increasingly difficult to find funding
for intensive ethnographic work. Partly for
this reason, and partly for others, which will
be discussed below, there has more recently
been a turn towards more truncated ethnographies which, though remaining true to the
quest to find the internal logic and meanings in various societies and groups, do not
require the same level of immersion and
input. For example, Rhodes (1995) studied
aspects of the culture of health care by regular attendance at case conference and bedside
meetings in a hospital. Estroff (1985) was
interested in the inner world of psychiatric
patients, and as part of her fieldwork as a
participant observer, took the controversial
decision to take psychotropic medication in
order to gain a sense from the inside of what
the side-effects of this medication felt like.
Her argument, from a relativist perspective,
was that one could not understand the inner
world and culture of mental illness without
experiencing first hand this key feature of
what it means to be mentally ill in a society in
which psychotropic medication is commonly
used.

Critical approaches
From a critical approach, everything is
viewed as being culturally situated. This
is the cultural psychology position. Cultural psychology claims that there is not
one standard psychology, but rather multiple, diverse psychologies. However, cultural psychology attempts to makes sense of
this diversity, without denying universals. As
Shweder (2000: 210) states, cultural psychology is characterized by Universalism without the uniformity. Whereas a universalist
approach argues that psychological concepts
are found in all cultures, and a relativist
approach argues that there are different psychological experiences in separate cultures,
a critical approach would argue that all contexts have multiple and diverse cultures, and

psychological concepts can only be understood with a critical understanding of diversity and how knowledge is produced. Critical
approaches are not necessarily separate from
other approaches, but a key factor in a critical approach to cultural psychology is that
it views issues of difference and diversity
as being linked to broader social phenomena of power and control. It is not, for
example, merely interesting that many (probably most) people express psychological distress in somatic terms but that psychiatrists
and psychologists tend to use psychological understandings. A critical approach to
this issue begins to ask questions about how
it is that certain forms of understanding
(in this case, a psychologized view of the
world) have come to be seen as offering
better explanations of the world than other
kinds of understanding (such as a somatic
view of emotional and interpersonal life).
How does the dominance of psychology
and psychiatry interlink with processes of
colonialism, the global economy, and even
the economic power of multinational drug
companies? When western psychology meets
non-Western ways of being in the world, what
does it do to make sense of these ways of
being and even to make these ways of being
knowable to and controllable by the west?
These are all questions within the critical
tradition in cultural psychology.
The emergence of the mini-ethnography
has been a key method in furthering the
critical turn in cultural psychology. We mentioned earlier that large-scale ethnographies
where the researcher goes to another culture
for a long period of time are expensive and
increasingly difficult to fund, useful though
the data they produce may be. From a critical perspective though, the process of setting
up an ethnographic study of another culture
raises questions about power relationships
across cultures, who has the right to speak
for whom (see Box 30.1), and the ways in
which the very method of ethnography may
impose narrative structures on the data collected (Clifford and Marcus, 1986). Smaller
ethnographies, and ethnographies of organizations within the dominant culture enable

CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

545

BOX 30.1 Critical Question: Who Speaks on Behalf of Whom? The Case of
Female Genital Mutilation

Shweder (2002) explores the controversial arguments surrounding the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). He
documents some of the arguments put forward by the anti-FGM movement criticizing the practice as a gross violation
of womens human rights; a practice which is enforced by patriarchal African societies. Shweder argues that these
arguments are put forward from a position of moral disgust and indignation from particular cultural values. These
emotional reactions are strengthened by the use of powerful images and words (for example in referring to the practice
as mutilation rather than circumcision; circumcision being practiced on many males around the world).
Shweder suggests that many of the arguments put forward by the anti-FGM movement are not always based on
empirical evidence, and documents research, and voices of women who have been circumcised who support female
genital circumcision. He refers to Fuambai Ahmadu, a young academic in USA, who is a Kono woman from Sierra
Leone. She herself has undergone the customary circumcision, and has publicly declared that the anti-FGM discourse
of the custom does not reect her experience or that of many Kono women.
Shweder suggests that the reported practice of FGM provokes what he terms a yuck response, with a recoil of
horror at the savagery of the custom. This response is based on Western attitudes towards beauty and the body:
Instead of assuming that our own perceptions of beauty and disgurement are universal and must be
transcendental, we might want to consider the possibility that a real and astonishing cultural divide
exists around the world in moral, emotional, and aesthetic reactions to female genital surgeries
Shweder (2002: 222)
Shweders views are not uncontroversial, but his emphasis on the need to take seriously the question of cultural
diversity, however unpalatable that diversity may be, is important.

us methodologically to show that many of

the ways in which so-called primitive or
strange societies are organized, are not that
different from those seen in dominant western culture. Part of the skill in ethnographies of aspects of dominant culture lies in
being able to make strange things which
may appear normal or ordinary about dominant culture. The critical approach to cultural
psychology, then, requires a methodological
stance within which even the most mundane and apparently obvious aspects of life
become open to scrutiny. This general critical stance towards methods can also of
course be transposed into a range of methodological techniques, including interviews,
focus groups, and a range of participative
approaches.

Indigenous psychologies
Alongside the development of cultural psychology as a focus within psychology as a
whole, there has also been increasing interest

in what has been termed indigenous psychology, or indigenous psychologies. In similar

fashion to the definitions of and approaches
to cultural psychology, there are two major
emphases in the field of indigenous psychologies. On the one hand, the study of
indigenous psychologies is very much within
the relativist tradition, attempting to gain an
understanding of world-views from the perspective of people who inhabit psychological
worlds and realities which differ from one
another (Heelas, 1981). This tradition provides important data, and requires careful
ethnographic work. On the other hand, however, the study of indigenous psychologies
can also be seen as operating from a more
explicitly political position which seeks to
advance the interests of oppressed indigenous
groups in a range of colonized countries. For
example, there has been increasing concern
with the psychological implications of the
subaltern status of indigenous Canadians, of
Maori people in New Zealand, and aboriginal
groups in Australia, all of whom experience

546

APPLICATIONS

psychological and health challenges linked to

their political status.
The critical turn in the study of indigenous psychologies has also led to debate
about methods used in research. For example,
Tomlinson and Swartz (2003) have examined a recent text which uses the method of
ethnographic fiction and is designed to provide insight into the different approaches to
infancy and childrearing across the world.
They show that the book has some benefits but is methodologically and politically
suspect in that some of the chapters notionally written from indigenous, insider perspectives, were in fact written by western
outsiders, some of whom had never even
visited the countries and groups in whose
voice they claimed to be writing. It is not
acceptable methodologically, Tomlinson and
Swartz (2003) argue, to claim to be able
speak in and represent the voice of the other.
The term indigenous in psychology and
in society more broadly, is, like the term
culture, open to abuse. An example of
present difficulties with the claims made
about indigenous knowledge can be seen in
the statements made by the South African
minister of health, Dr Manto TshabalalaMsimang around the time of writing of this
chapter. Dr Tshabalala-Msimang has repeatedly made claims for the health-giving effects
of some vegetables and herbs for people who
have AIDS, and has been less vocal about
the importance of antiretroviral therapies for
AIDS. There is good clinical trial evidence
for the efficacy of antiretroviral therapies but
none for the effectiveness of the remedies
Dr Tshablalala-Msimang is promoting. Part
of the way in which she justifies her views
on this matter is with reference to the importance of respecting indigenous views and
remedies (Swartz, 2006). As Farmer (1997)
pointed out, if all remedies and practices
touted as efficacious by people who are concerned to promote indigenous systems had
the range and quality of effects sometimes
claimed for them, the rich West would long
since have imported and appropriated more
of these remedies. When we aim to be culturally sensitive and to promote the rights of

oppressed groups, we need to keep a clear

methodological head, and not to make claims
which are made without any consideration
of evidence and which may in the end not
promote understanding.

CULTURE AND ISSUES IN RESEARCH

Neutrality
Researchers come with their own set of
cultural values, and we need to take into
account the position of the researcher and
observer in relation to the culture being analysed (Salvatore and Pagano, 2005). There
is no neutral position when studying cultural phenomena. As stated by Gjerde (2004:
1534):
Each view of culture is positioned and every statement about culture has an ideological dimension.
Cultural psychology is per se a critical discipline; anyone who maps cultural phenomena has, implicitly
or explicitly, a value orientation that inuences his
or her perceptions. Hence there is no neutral place
from where to observe, interpret, or name cultural
phenomena.

In addition, very often we think of cultures

as natural, homogenous entities, and do not
take into consideration diverse viewpoints
within a particular society. This raises questions about who speaks on behalf of whom?
Who is a cultural spokesperson/broker?
Shweder (2002) raises these issues in his
discussion around female genital mutilation
(see Box 30.1).
Shweder raises the issue of representivity,
and who can speak for whom. In the case of
female genital mutilation, for example, does
a man from a very patriarchal culture have
more status as an insider to speak on behalf
of oppressed women in his culture than does,
say a woman from another culture who has
panfeminist ideas? There is no easy solution
to this dilemma. Gjerde (2004) argues that no
individual can be representative of a culture,
and so it becomes problematic to speak of a
cultural insider. What is perhaps important
is to provide a balanced view, with an aim to
understanding different points of view.

CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

Fadiman (1997) provides an excellent

example of an ethnographic study which
takes differing cultural interpretations into
account. Her award-winning book, The Spirit
Catches You and You Fall Down, gives a
detailed ethnographic case study of a Hmong
child being treated by American doctors.
The case study is of a refugee family from
Laos, living in California, USA. The familys
young daughter was diagnosed with severe
epilepsy and received medical treatment from
a California hospital. However, her family
understood her seizures as being caused by
her soul fleeing from her body, and called
it by the Hmong name quag dab peg which
means the spirit catches you and you fall
down (referring to the soul being stolen
from the body and the person left falling).
There existed a continuous clash between
the hospital and the family, due to a lack
of understanding between the doctors and
the family over the illness and its treatment.
For example, Hmong understanding of the
body and the soul meant that procedures like
blood sampling, spinal taps and anaesthesia
would be understood as causing the soul to
flee the body. Fadiman writes with an overarching political commitment to the particular
child receiving the best health care. However,
she does so in a spirit of active neutrality and curiosity about different perspectives,
with a desire to understand different forms of
internal logics.

The need to acknowledge

differences
When working in a multicultural context,
there are many ways of understanding and
making sense of different identities. In order
to process these differences in a helpful
way, we must acknowledge them, and recognize that they do exist. If we assume
that everyone is similar, we risk ignoring
individual ways of being. There is a silencing effect in wanting to be culturally correct and non-discriminatory, but in order to
achieve a deeper understanding of difference,
we need more open discussion of dilemmas. Shweder and Sullivan (1993), however,

547

caution that although we need to acknowledge differences, we should do so without falling back on the interpretation of the
other as a deficient or underdeveloped version of the self (Shweder and Sullivan,
1993: 501).
To do this, we need to also acknowledge our own prejudices around issues of
difference. If we are able to reflect upon
our own sensitivities about diversity, then
we can observe more clearly what others
do. Family therapists have developed a helpful way of contrasting two particular ways
in which culture is used (Friedman, 1982;
DiNicola, 1986). Peoples cultural costume
refers to the beliefs and values that people
may hold and have inherited from their particular community. However, these beliefs
and traditions may be used as a way of
distracting attention away from problems;
what authors refer to as cultural camouflage. This may lead to the abusive use
of culture in making certain claims. For
example, Gibson, Swartz and Sandenbergh
(2002) show how people can refuse to change
oppressive practices, and gender oppression in particular, on the grounds that these
practices are part of an unchanging culture
which is immune from scrutiny from the
outside.
In the USA, the question of the use and
abuse of culture took place in heated discussions around the future status of Elin
Gonzalez, a Cuban boy found adrift at sea
in November 1999 during an attempt to
reach Miami. During a struggle to decide
on whether Elin should return to Cuba to
his father or remain in Miami with relatives,
much political debate ensued on whether it
was right for the boy to be raised in a
communist culture or a capitalist culture (see
Sahlins, 2002).
In the use of cultural camouflage, individuals will cite cultural difference as a
basis for misunderstandings about a certain
problem or difficulty. We cannot get away
from real differences that may exist, but
what is important is to take these differences into account when trying to make
sense of the world. Anthropologists have

548

APPLICATIONS

suggested that it is possible to work without fully understanding what is occurring

across cultures. They talk about a working misunderstanding, and suggest that it
is not fully possible for one to understand
another individuals cultural traditions or
beliefs, but that even when we recognize
this incommensurability, we can still find
a way of working across divides (Sahlins,
2002).
The use of diverse research teams and
collaborative research projects can be a useful means by which to facilitate necessary
reflexivity and open discussion of dilemmas.
Together with colleagues from two South
African universities, the authors have been
involved in a collaborative, inter-disciplinary
teaching research project. This project aims
to facilitate students collaborative learning on issues of diversity, community and
professional work, across the boundaries
of race, class and culture (see Rohleder,
Swartz, Bozalek, Carolissen and Leibowitz,
in press a; Rohleder, Swartz, Carolissen,
Bozalek and Leibowitz, in press b). In this
project a practical module was designed as
part of fourth year social work and psychology students curriculum. The project used a
combination of face-to-face workshops and
internet-based (E-learning) interaction. One
of the universities has a history of having
mainly white1 , middle-class students, and
the other university having mostly black
or coloured1 students from disadvantaged
backgrounds. The project was informed by
a participatory action research approach,
which emphasizes practical collaboration and
reflexivity. Students generated written online
discussions around diversity and communities in small groups. These discussions were
then analysed using qualitative methods, such
as content analysis and discourse analysis. The project enabled students to broaden
their awareness around issues of diversity, with many students discussing how
their racial, classed and gendered history
impacted on their social and professional
lives. The project aimed to encourage the
necessary reflexivity needed when engaging with differences. However, this is not

easy to do, and many of the students

tended to focus on their commonalities and
silencing their opinions in the interest of
appearing culturally correct (Rohleder et al.,
in press a).

Multilingualism and the use of

interpretation and translation
The issue of language differences is a particular concern in cultural psychology research,
when researching different cultures and societies from ones own. In a multicultural,
multilingual society (and most societies in the
world now are in fact very diverse), clinical
and research practice in psychology regularly
needs to take into account the translation and
interpretation of language.
There are a number of ways in which language difference can be viewed. An empiricist approach to understanding language,
regards language as labels used to refer to
things that exist in reality. Thus different languages would use different labels for objects
and realities that exist across the world.
A translator or interpreter would then, relatively easily, supply need to find the appropriate label that describes the object or reality
spoken about.
In a hermeneutic or social constructionist
approach, more consistent with current trends
in qualitative methods, language is seen as
the means in which meaning and reality is
fabricated, and self-experience is constructed
(Bruner, 1991; Burr, 1995). In this model,
translation and interpretation become complex activities. We need to consider how
language is used in conveying not only
information but also emotional experience,
and implicit beliefs about status, and about
how social life operates. In this hermeneutic model, we also have to take into account
the extent to which the act of translation
implies the construction of a particular reality (Swartz, 1998: 29).

Interpretation
When conducting qualitative research in cultural psychology, very often interviews are

CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

conducted with participants speaking a different language to that of the interviewer. Thus,
an interpreter is needed for the interview. The
use of an interpreter needs to be considered
when gaining informed consent from interviewees for their participation, and furthermore has implications for the confidentiality
of the interviews.
In hospital settings in lower-income countries, staff members who are not trained
interpreters are commonly called upon to
interpret interviews conducted. Studies have
highlighted how the unclear role of these
interpreters in the hospital structure, as well
as the lack of training around the act of interpreting, may contribute to failures in interpreted interviews (Crawford, 1994; Drennan,
1996, 1999; Elderkin-Thompson, Silver and
Waitzkin, 2001).
Vasquez and Javier (1991) outline common
errors that are made by interpreters, when
parts of what is said are omitted or added
on, or sections of messages are condensed, or
substituted with other messages. Interpreters
may also take on the role of interviewer.
These errors are outlined in Box 30.2.
In addition to these common errors, there
is also the issue that there is not only one
correct translation for a particular word. For
example, in India, Shweder (2003) notes
how in the Oriya language the word lajya
may be interpreted as shame, modest,
shy, bashful or embarrassed. Similarly, in
South Africa the Xhosa word ukukhathazekile

BOX 30.2

1. Omission:

549

in Xhosa may, depending on context mean

depressed, anxious, or worried (Swartz,
1998).
These issues make interpreted interviews
difficult. In Box 30.3, we outline a number of suggestions for before, during and
after the interview, which may improve its
success.

Translation
In psychological research, very often questionnaires or written texts are used as data for
analysis. It may be necessary in the research
to translate these into different languages.
The act of translation may be as difficult as
that of interpreting, with similar issues such
as there not only being one correct translation
for a particular word. Brislin (1986) suggests some translation methods which may
help in obtaining best possible results. These
are outlined in Box 30.4, and include backtranslation, the need for conceptual equivalence, bilingual translation, and a translating
committee.
This approach to translation, though useful, often does not take into account the
power relations that are involved in the translating process (Drennan et al., 1991). Cultural representations may be suppressed or
advanced by those who hold power (Gjerde,
2004). Conceptual representations that are
constructed by the investigator may not be
equivalent to the research subjects representations (Shweder and Sullivan, 1993).

Common Errors Made by Interpreters in Interpreted Interviews

This is when an interpreter leaves out sections of a message given by a person speaking. This
commonly happens when a large amount is said in the interview.
2. Addition:
The interpreter adds to what a speaker has said, often to make what is said more clear or polite.
3. Condensation: Here an interpreter summarizes what has been said, according to what he or she views as being
most important. This summarized view, and emphasis on what is most important may differ
signicantly from the views of the interviewee, as well as the interviewer.
4. Substitution:
Here an interpreter replaces what is said, with something that has not been said. This arises out
of responding to assumptions that arise in every social interaction.
5. Role exchange: The interpreter starts to take over the role of interviewer and may substitute their own questions
for those posed by the interviewer.

550

BOX 30.3

APPLICATIONS

Suggestions for Improving Interpreted Interviews

1. Preparation
It is important for the interviewer and interpreter to discuss and have a clear understanding of each others
roles, how the interview is to be structured, the aims and purpose of the research interview, and how issues
and problems will be dealt with as they arise in the interview.
It is essential that the interviewer engages with the interpreter around any issues or suggestions that the
interpreter may have.
2. Introducing the interview
In addition to discussions around condentiality and informed consent, the interviewee needs to be informed
as to how the interview will be structured and what the roles of the participants are. It can be suggested to
interviewees that their responses can be delivered in a manner that allows for periodic interpretation of what
is said, rather than long, continuous narratives. Interviewees can also be invited to ask questions and raise any
concerns that they may have.
3. Conducting the interview
It is important to conduct the interview with consideration of the interviewees feelings and comfort. It is useful
to periodically clarify with the interviewee how the process is working.
Interpreted interviews are usually long and can become tedious, resulting in fatigue, irritation and frustration.
It is important to discuss and deal with these feelings as they arise. Breaks in the interview may be required.
4. Discussions after the interview
It is useful for the interviewer and interpreter to sit for some time after the interview and discuss what happened.
Issues and points that were raised during the interview can be claried. The impressions of the interpreter as
to the interviewees behaviour or approach may provide some useful data.
Depending on the focus of the interview, it may elicit some traumatic material which may have upset the
interpreter. This must be addressed and, indeed, planned for about afterwards.

BOX 30.4

Suggestions for Translation of Texts

1. Back-translation
The text is translated from the original source language to the target language. A second translator then translates
the translated text back to the original source language. The back-translated version can then be compared to the
original version, and adjustments made until both are conceptually as similar as possible.
2. Need for conceptual equivalence
Conceptual equivalence refers to the equivalence in the meaning of the items in source and translated texts.
3. Bilingual use of questionnaires
For example, bilingual people are asked to complete versions of the questionnaire in both its original and translated
languages. Their responses can then be compared to check for accuracy of the questions asked.
4. Translation committee
A committee can be used to discuss aspects of the translated texts.

CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Cultural psychology is a discipline which is
still evolving. As the world changes, with
more shifts in populations through war, natural disaster, commerce and tourism, the
cultural landscape of the world is changing
too. Cultural psychology came of age in an
era when issues of cultural difference seemed
much less complex, and boundaries between
cultures more clear. We now live in a world
in which there is confusion about the role of
cultural tolerance and respect in the light of
ever more obvious manifestations of cultural
intolerance, xenophobia, racism, and terrorism. In some sense the easy idea that if we
all just respect all cultures everything will be
better has now disappeared not that this
complacent and somewhat romanticized view
was ever really accurate.
The disciplined approach of cultural psychology to questions of reflexivity and difference, especially in these difficult times,
has much to offer to many who are struggling to find ways to navigate diversity issues
effectively and with integrity. Qualitative
methodologies such as mini-ethnographies
and critical discourse analysis are particularly useful, as they allow for reflexivity and
the exploration of diversity and the dynamics
of power in social contexts. As highlighted
above, the role of the researcher as well as the
researched in the construction of knowledge
is a key area of exploration, in answering
such critical questions as who is talking for
whom. As an approach, cultural psychology
does not by any means have all the answers
but it certainly helps us to ask the right questions and to think about ways of going about
answering them.

NOTES
1 We use the classication of racial categories
white, black, coloured, as is commonly used in
modern-day South Africa to identify groups of people.
However, we acknowledge the negative connotations
of these terms, as the use of these categories also carry
with them a history under apartheid in South Africa,
where sections of the population were classied and

551

kept separate from each other according to these

racial categories.

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