The Challenges of Adapting a Questionnaire to a New Cultural Context: The Case of Studying Group-Based Guilt and Shame in Russia

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Abstract

With the majority of social-psychological research still being conducted in Western countries, researchers from non-Western countries often adopt existing theories, constructs, and instruments that are not necessarily applicable to the contexts they are interested in. This paper discusses problems that might arise when transferring psychological constructs and instruments from one cultural setting to another. We use the case of a study of group-based guilt and shame in Russia that was carried out by the research team. First, we briefly discuss the original study and the problems we encountered while conducting it. We then analyze the results of eight in-depth semi-structured interviews that followed up the original study. Finally, we conduct a thematic analysis of Facebook commentaries (N=98) that participants left after filling out the original questionnaire. Based on these analyses, we suggest a checklist for researchers who plan to study a psychological construct that wasn’t studied in a given cultural context before. With this paper, we hope to highlight the importance of thorough and comprehensive adaptation of psychological constructs and instruments to new cultural settings.

General Information

Keywords: methodology of psychology, questionnaire adaptation, cultural sensitivity, group-based emotions, guilt, shame

Journal rubric: Theory and Methodology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/chp.2018140111

For citation: Grigoryan L.K., Khaptsova A.A., Poluektova O.V. The Challenges of Adapting a Questionnaire to a New Cultural Context: The Case of Studying Group-Based Guilt and Shame in Russia. Kul'turno-istoricheskaya psikhologiya = Cultural-Historical Psychology, 2018. Vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 98–106. DOI: 10.17759/chp.2018140111. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Lusine K. Grigoryan, MA in Psychology, PhD Student, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: grigoryanlusine@yandex.ru

Alyona A. Khaptsova, MA in Psychology, Lecturer at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Junior Research Fellow at the International Scientific and Educational Laboratory for Sociocultural Research, Jacobs University Bremen, St.Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: Alena.khaptsova@list.ru

Olga V. Poluektova, PhD Student, Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany, e-mail: olga_poluektova@hotmail.com

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