ABSTRACT
Cross-cultural psychology attempts to understand similarities and differences in human behavior in their cultural contexts. As such, it takes culture seriously as a factor in the development and display of individual behavior. Three broad theoretical perspectives on behavior-culture interaction have been discerned: absolutism, relativism, and universalism. The absolutist position is one that assumes that human behavior is basically the same (qualitatively) in all cultures: “honesty” is “honesty,” and “depression” is “depression,” no matter where one observes it. The “culture-comparative” approach is rooted in the universalist perspective, and employs the “derived etic” method. It argues that cultural contexts are important factors in human behavioral development, and need to be thoroughly examined. One continuing theme in cultural anthropology is that cultural variations may be understood as adaptations to differing ecological settings or contexts. This line of thinking usually known as “cultural ecology”, “ecological anthropology”, or the “ecosystem approach” to anthropology has a long history in the discipline.
