Certain behaviors and concepts may have different meanings across cultures. Metric equivalence refers to the psychometric properties and indicates that the scales measure the same constructs in different cultures. Finally, linguistic equivalence refers to the actual translation process. Another issue that must be considered in cross-cultural assessment is test bias. The test user must ascertain that the test and the test items do not systematically discriminate against one cultural group or another.
Culture plays a significant role in cross-cultural assessment.
Whenever tests developed in one culture are used with another culture there is the potential for misinterpretation and stagnation unless cultural issues are considered. Issues of test adaptation, test equivalence and test bias must be considered in order to fully utilize the benefit of cross-cultural assessment. Cross-national application of psychological tests. Cross-cultural vocational assessment. Translation and adaptation issues influencing the normative interpretation of assessment instruments.