Politico-economic Factors as Alternative to National Culture as Explanatory Factor in Cross-Cultural Psychology

Abstract: In this paper, we examine how behavioural differences observed in cross-cultural studies are explained and the accuracy of such explanation. Often researchers fall on culture as an elucidation for the differences observed. However, we demonstrate in this paper how cultural explanation offers arguably a feeble and impractical scientific explanation for behavioural differences in transnational studies. It was shown that when psychologists refer to cultural differences to explain the observed behavioural differences, they are in fact explaining the observed behavioural differences with the expected differences in behaviour associated with societies to which the research participants belong respectively. However, it is concluded that a cultural explanation is an acceptable explanation for incompatibility and lack of fit for the import or export of best practices from one society to another but not an acceptable explanation for differences in the observed behaviours. In its place, politico-economic factors are offered as alternative, viable, and valid scientific explanations.