My culture is the only culture... right?

Wrong. Usually in the world of science there is black and there is white. There is no grey area where ‘maybe’ could be concerned. But Psychology, of course, breaks all the rules. From the dawn of the subject to the present day, psychology has been fiercly rooted and practised in western cultures (Yang, 2012). Theories developed and linked to the Western culture have been carelessly imported to other countries where their cultural ideologies are simply overlooked. This globalisation means that the results of studies are likely to incorrectly represent cultures of the world or impose western culture onto them. An example of this is found with Koro syndrome, a culturally-bound syndrome where the patient describes a fear of penile shrinkage (Malinick, Flaherty & Jobe, 1985). In Western cultures, the symptoms of Koro would likely be diagnosed as body dysmorphic disorder rather than Koro. Incorrect diagnosis of culturally-bound issues display the importance of using psychological theories correctly to aid treatment.

But what does the import and export of psychology mean for national culture? Assimilation between cultures, where cultures of the world become similar and begin to resemble that of the western world, is one possibility (Berry, 2011). This suggests that it is possible that a global culture could one day replace the unique and fascinating national cultures seen around the globe. However, ideas like these can not be raised without raising larger ones. If it is realistic that assimilation will occur, does this mean that there is one culture more dominant and more successful in today’s world than the others? Such a question deems more research and a patient waiting game, but for now it is important to remember the differences in culture when importing aspects of western psychology to the rest of the world (Bird & Stevens, 2003).

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References

Berry, J. (2011). Cross-cultural psychology (3rd ed., pp. 441-461). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bird, A., & Stevens, M. (2003). Toward an emergent global culture and the effects of globalization on obsolescing national cultures. Journal Of International Management, 9(4), 395-407.

Malinick, C., Flaherty, J., & Jobe, T. (1985). Koro: How Culturally Specific?. International Journal Of Social Psychiatry, 31(1), 67-73.

Yang, K. (2012). Indigenous Psychology, Westernized Psychology, and Indigenized Psychology: A Non-Western Psychologist’s View. Chang Gung Journal Of Humanities And Social Sciences, 1-32.