PRACTICAL METHODOLOGIES FOR CROSS-CULTURAL RESEARCH

Since all research is in a sense comparative, it is sometimes argued that methods and requirements remain the same, no matter what country or nationality is involved. The editors of this volume contend that this philosophy is an oversimplification. Although comparative survey research builds on and benefits from best practices established in monocultural research, cross-cultural research requires methodologies which address the central issues of equivalence of measurement and comparability of findings. The literature dealing with these issues has tended to be piecemeal, scattered across disciplines, and focused on specific questionnaires and the needs of single disciplines. This book provides the first systematic, interdisciplinary and hands-on treatment of the issues of greatest saliency for comparative survey research within and across countries.

Breaking new ground in its approach, Cross-Cultural Survey Methods describes how to recognize and deal with the major obstacles at each stage of researching, striving for equivalence and comparability. Topics include:

• Designing and crafting questionnaires for comparative subjects, including questionnaire translation
• Error and bias issues in cross-national surveys
• Techniques for analyzing bias and equivalence
• Statistical techniques for substantive analysis and the use of multidimensional scaling to analyze bias and research questions
• Important issues of preparing data for secondary analysis, such as data access, and documentation
• An introduction to meta-analysis in comparative survey research

Consistently readable and grounded in the expertise of noted international authorities, this volume fills an increasing need for practical methodologies for cross-cultural research.

JANET A. HARKNESS, PhD, is Director for Germany of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), convenor and member of the ISSP methodology groups, and is internal coordinator of COMPASS, a five-country consortium of research institutes for European comparative social science survey research.

FONS J. R. Van de VIJVER, PhD, teaches cross-cultural psychology at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. He is Editor of the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

PETER Ph. MOHLER, PhD, is Director of ZUMA, member of the Board of Directors of GESIS, and a professor at Manheim University.