Psychology of Space Exploration
in various cultural and ethnic groups; of the relationships between these variables
and socio-cultural, ecological, and biological variables, and of ongoing changes in
these variables.”^25 In addition to pursuing these objectives, some psychologists have
ventured into intercultural research, which is concerned with the study of contacts
and interactions between persons from different cultures.^26 Intercultural encounters
can be better understood and their effectiveness can be enhanced on the basis of
the body of knowledge of cross-cultural psychology that has largely accumulated in
the course of the last three or four decades. We now turn to some of the approaches
that have evolved from this research.
The Culture AssimilatorThe culture assimilator, developed by F. E. Fiedler, T. Mitchell, and H. C.
Triandis, is an extensively used and systematically validated programmed learning
approach to cross-cultural training.^27 As described by Triandis, “it consists of 100 to
200 episodes, i.e. scenarios where people from two cultures interact. Each episode
is followed by four or five explanations of why the member of the other culture has
acted in a specific way. The trainee selects one of the explanations and is asked to
turn to another page (or computer screen) where feedback is provided concerning
the chosen explanation.”^28 The objective is not only to help people anticipate con-
crete situations that are construed and reacted to differently in another culture, but
to help them gradually grasp the rules that underlie the various expected and “nor-
mal” courses of action in the culture in question. Controlled studies of training by
means of the culture assimilator demonstrate that it results in trainees’ selecting
explanations of others’ behavior that are closer to those chosen by the members of
the target culture. Moreover, the learners’ attributions tend to become more spe-
- J. W. Berry, Y. H. Poortinga, M. H. Segall, and P. R. Dasen, Cross-Cultural Psychology:
Research and Applications, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 3. - R. W. Brislin, Understanding Culture’s Influence on Behavior, 2nd ed. (Fort Worth, TX:
Harcourt College Publishers, 2000). - F. E. Fiedler, T. Mitchell, and H. C. Triandis, “The Culture Assimilator: An Approach to
Cross-Cultural Training,” Journal of Applied Psychology 55 (1971): 95–102. - H. C. Triandis, Culture and Social Behavior (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), p. 278.