Meeting the Challenges of Fieldwork in Cross-cultural Psychological Research

Abstract

The last two decades have evidenced a phenomenal growth of cross-cultural research on issues related to basic as well as applied psychological problems. While somepeople still doubt the very existence of cross-cultural psychology as a separate area of inquiry, the methodology of research in this field has been characterised by a variety of risks and challenges. In this article a few major challenges of fieldwork in cross-cultural psychological research are discussed in the specific context of a research carried out by the authors with tribal samples in the state of Bihar. Suggestions for meeting the various challenges have been offered adopting a "sharing of experiences" approach.