ABSTRACT
The theoretical diversity of culture and personality is more than matched by its myriad of research methods, and while competing theories invigorate research, methodological dispute can debilitate it. No one can doubt that the field of culture and personality, so promising in its theoretical statements, has foundered on the question of what kinds of evidence are necessary and sufficient to solve the important intellectual problems it represents. To a large extent this uncertainty reflects the divisions and doubts of personality psychology which, having never resolved its methodological disagreements, is now beset by questioning and rejection of virtually all its methods and techniques (see Chapter 12), To these difficulties, however, culture and personality adds a few that are distinctively its own, which have plagued the field for years and discouraged several generations of students interested in its problems from undertaking research on them.
