Since the early 1970s four distinct approaches to the study of culture and psychology have emerged, specifically psychological anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology, and, most recently, ethnic psychology. In general, cross-cultural psychology seeks to understand how sociocultural variables influence human behavior by studying groups across cultures or by striving to identify common universal relationships. Similarly, ethnic psychology seeks to identify and understand the characteristics of the ethnocultural group in which the individual develops or of which one becomes a member. The characteristics in both fields form the independent variables. The dependent variables are social-psychological qualities of individuals developing within a cultural group or ethnocultural group.
Cultural psychology is a relative newcomer to the area.
The journal Cross-Cultural Research and one text define and summarize the nature of the subfield. Ethnic psychology is the newest subfield. There are two edited collections of essays and articles currently available and one new journal, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, for which I am an Associate Editor and a member of the journal's Council of Elders. The fundamental objective of my research is to compile literature citations, including research findings, scholarly debates, and commentary in the fields of cross-cultural, cultural, and ethnic psychology. Information and findings will be synthesized and organized to write what could be the first full textbook on ethnic psychology.