Which statement best describes cross-cultural psychology in relation to universal psychology?

• A. Cross-cultural psychology studies universal laws across cultures.
• B. Cross-cultural psychology examines how cultural factors influence behavior and mental processes.
• C. Cross-cultural psychology focuses on individual cognitive processes independent of culture.
• D. Cross-cultural psychology only studies non-Western cultures.

Answer: (B)

Culture shapes how people think, feel, and behave, and cross-cultural psychology specifically investigates how cultural factors influence those processes across different groups. This field looks at how culture can create both universal tendencies and culturally specific expressions, emphasizing context and variability rather than assuming one-size-fits-all laws. That makes the statement describing cross-cultural psychology as examining how cultural factors influence behavior and mental processes the best fit, because it centers culture as a key influence on psychological functioning.

If you think about universal psychology, the focus is more on identifying general principles that apply across cultures, which is the contrast to cross-cultural work. The idea of studying individual cognitive processes independent of culture ignores a central concern of cross-cultural psychology. And cross-cultural psychology does not limit itself to non-Western cultures; it aims to study a wide range of cultures to understand both similarities and differences and to avoid Western-centric bias.