Question

Explain challenges that might arise in cross-cultural research. How can being aware of these challenges assist a researcher? What might they do to address these issues? Why is important to develop a culturally sensitive understanding of health and illness in both a theoretical and applied setting? How can health psychologists and other professionals ensure that they do this?

Answer 1

Since the research in social sciences became more sophisticated, different methods and design of research developed by researchers. The cross-cultural or comparative research is a specialization in social sciences and humanities that covers field data from many societies to examine the scope of human behavior. Cross-cultural research mainly focuses on the comparison between two or more cultures to test the hypothesis.

When a researcher collects data from different cultures and society, he/she might experiences prejudicial or stereotype behavior which could affect data mining in a proper manner. Sometimes, the researcher experiences a lack of cultural and ritual information of a particular culture.

Cross-cultural research is a comparative research methodology so cultural and social problems occur during data collection and interpretation because cultural myths, faiths and social contradictions affect the behavior of researcher and people who engaged with these factors.

This method is good for general comparison but when we analyze multiple factors including socio-economic and political, we may trap in social beliefs, taboos and rituals. For example, Western culture is very concerned about hygiene and cleanliness while South Asian culture is different, so it may affect the behavior of western researcher towards social problems while Asian researcher would not concerned about it.

Answer 2

Hi! I have to respectfully disagree with your original statement thata allegedly Western cultures deem hygiene as more important than in South Asian cultures. If we compare a country Pakistan to a country like the U.S., we see lower rates of UTI, skin rashes, and infections whose sources originate from uncleanliness and hygiene. This is mainly due to the use of bidets or similar gadgets across all public and private restrooms where everyone continues using both water and toilet paper to clean their privates since childbirth. In the U.S., after a child is out of diapers, they no longer use wipes or any water/moisture to clean their private areas, causing not only illness but overall lack of hygiene since traces of fecal matter and other unclean germs remain in the private areas along with other natural moisture like sweat, debris, etc. Furthermore, those that practice Islam are constantly washing their hands, showering and grooming daily, as well as applying deodorant and perfume, etc. as cleanliness and hygiene are extremely important parts of living as monotheistic humans. Those values spill over to Pakistani culture, whereas only with the pandemic have we seen more sanitizers in public spaces. This also applies to cleaning the food they eat and overall frequent cleaning and maintenance is always encouraged in public and private spaces. In the West, there seems to often be a lack of detail in cleaning equally due to carelessness or lack of resources. We can only hope to see improvements in cleanliness, hygiene, and lack of constant sicknesses that usually affect school-going children the most.