Cross Cultural Psychology in the 21st Century Essay

Cross Cultural Psychology in the 21st Century - Essay Example Cultural similarities and differences have to be studied on priority for understanding human behaviour. Travelling is an integral part of cross-cultural psychological research. Unlimited friendship with people from diverse backgrounds and theoretical and practical life experiences that should enable the researcher to think critically, rationally and logically are compulsory for the said research. It is imperative to think less about cultural differences and more about assimilating the cross-cultural psychology into mainstream psychology. Research should focus on adjusting the ideologies and theories to the mainstream psychology, Matsumoto's saying that bilinguals automatically work from two cultural frames depending on the language they speak at any given moment. Knowing more languages enables them to get into multiple personalities and intercultural sensitivity. Most westerners are monolingual and are unaccustomed to cross cultural comparisons. Future developments in research should focus on cultural comparisons. Culture is too magnificent to be captured by one dimension alone and should be understood in its many splendours, also with reference to power and status that affect the culture. Integration of cross-cultural theories into mainstream psychology should be the target. Two research regions should be the intercultural and interpersonal communications and their importance. Culture and the so