Conceptualizing and measuring culture : rethinking invariance assessment as a crucial process for cultural research

Culture is a construct that cannot be directly observed but has to be inferred. Anthropology has long emphasized the meaning making process for understanding culture, yet this important insight has been sidelined in survey-based cross-cultural studies. Researchers typically pose questions and then interpret selected statistical parameters from cross-cultural data. The interpretation of parameters that were constrained via researcher-posed questions crucially obscures the meaning making process used by respondents. To bring meaning-making back into the study of culture, I outline a broad invariance assessment process differentiating five stages of inquiry that apply to most research projects. I briefly outline cognitive theories of survey responding and meaning-making and show how they link to my invariance questions. I present examples to illustrate novel insights about culture as a multi-level concept that can be gained through this process. My main argument is that analysis of culture requires renewed focus on meaning making processes by individuals embedded in different social, economic, ecological and technological contexts. Invariance assessment in the broad sense outlined here is a central element in such an endeavor.