Spaceflight and Cross-Cultural Psychologycultures of specific individuals in their personal uniqueness, cultural distinctiveness,
and human universality.
Critical IncidentsK. Cushner and R. W. Brislin extended culture assimilator methodology to a set
of 100 sketches pertaining to 18 themes representative of various domains of inter-
cultural experience.^33 These vignettes represent critical incidents frequently encoun-
tered by newcomers to a culture other than their own. Each vignette is accompanied
by four options, one of which, through thorough pretesting, has been deemed to be
the most culturally appropriate. Critical incidents serve as points of departure for
the development of more specific, yet critically important, items that would sensitize
astronauts to crucial, yet culturally divergent, aspects of interaction and cooperation
during space missions. Extending these methods to space, we would pool knowledge
of participants’ cultures with information on the personal, social, and technical chal-
lenges of flight. That is, previously encountered problems, conflicts, and crises are the
requisite “raw material” for the construction of incidents.
Cultural Dimensions: Value OrientationOn the basis of multistage factor analyses conducted on a huge store of data
from 72 countries, G. Hofstede identified four relatively independent cultural
dimensions.^34 Originally based on questionnaire responses on values in the work-
place, Hofstede’s four factors have been studied around the world in educational,
social, mental health, and many other settings. The second edition of his mono-
graph and more recent publications, for example by G. Hofstede and G. J. Hofstede,
- K. Cushner and R. W. Brislin, Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed.
(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1995). - G. Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values
(Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1980).