Cultural or cross-cultural psychology has until now only made a relatively brief appearance
as a methodological and theoretical system within the field of psychology, albeit many of
the early writings from other disciplines (e.g. history, art, philosophy) display an interest in
Approaches to the psychology of culture 6
cross-cultural issues. As has been noted by Jahoda (1992), at its most basic level, crosscultural
research had its inception when one group, with certain folkways and language,
began to observe another group with somewhat different characteristics (see also Thomas,
1994). Most of the notions found expression in the belief that certain groups were less
developed than others but would be able to advance in the direction of modern civilisation.
Some of these images have endured and pertain to shape our thinking about different
cultures until today (Jahoda, 1980; 1999).