Social Psychology and Cultural Context is the first survey of social psychology to integrate cross-cultural issues. The book not only utilizes several variants of the construct of subjective culture but also reflects the current state of affairs in the social domain of cross-cultural psychology. Written by world-renowned specialists, the chapters in this volume offer valuable insights to students and researchers in both cross-cultural and social psychology.
Chapter 12: Family in Cross-Cultural Psychology
Family in Cross-Cultural Psychology
Most psychologists would probably agree that, historically, psychology's primary concern has been the study of the individual, or more specifically, psychological processes such as cognition, personality, motivation, and so on, and how they interact with the environment. Three fields of psychology—social psychology, developmental psychology, and clinical psychology—have been interested in studying interaction processes between dyads or within small groups. However, psychology has had little interest, with a few exceptions, in studying how the family influences psychological functioning. The exceptions are few. Within clinical psychology, family therapy is employed as a psychotherapeutic technique. This has led to the formulation of theories related to the structure of the family, different types of pathological families, and their effects ...