The cross-cultural perspective in Romanian psychology

Abstract

An overview is presented of issues relevant to cross-cultural research in Romanian psychology. It is first observed that Romania is not well presented in large-scale cross-cultural studies such as studies on (work-related) values and that the scarce data do not present a consistent picture. The paper then continues by presenting relevant topics for the fledgling cross-cultural research in psychology in Romania. The first is the need to go beyond the emic—etic dichotomy; the second is the seemingly ubiquitous presence of response styles in self-reports in cross-cultural studies; the third refers to acculturation psychology. It is concluded that cross-cultural psychology is relevant for three domains in cross-cultural psychology in Romania: the place of Romania in the psychological map of the world, Romanians in the Diaspora, and diversity (multiculturalism) within Romania.