THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

9 This treatise on the study of cross-cultural differences between mod-ern societies starts with an examination of the various ways in which CULTURE has been conceptualized. Approaches to the CONCEPT and study of CULTURE have varied between academic disciplines, and some-times even within them. The goal of this analysis is not to provide one right perspective. CULTURE can be whatever a scholar decides it should be. What we need is not a single best theoretical definition of CULTURE but clear empirical operationalizations of each approach: Researchers need to explain exactly how they propose to measure CULTURE in accordance with their conceptualizations, diverse as they may be. 1 THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE 10 Understanding CULTURE The Unpackaging of CULTURE Psychologists who compare individu-als from different nationalities or ethnic groups often observe differences between them on the dependent variables that they study.

study climatic differences (for instance, van de Vliert, 2009), although climate is unlikely to be viewed by anybody as part of culture. Yet, that researcher would not be interested in climate per se, but in how it affects variation in values, beliefs, and behaviors, which could be considered ele-ments or expressions of culture.

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  Value, Differences, Behavior, Belief

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