Criteria and methods for assessing cultural universality of cognitive representations underlying complex psychological constructs.

We propose criteria for assessing the cross-cultural universality of cognitive representations that underlie complex psychological constructs. According to prototype theory, complex constructs are cognitively represented in terms of central and peripheral features. The cross-cultural universality of a complex construct, then, pertains to the level of agreement among cultures with regard to these central and peripheral features. We specify four criteria for cross-cultural universality: (1) similar ordinality in features, (2) consistency in rating central (compared to peripheral) features, (3) distinctiveness of feature sets, and (4) similar elevations in prototypicality for feature sets. We suggest simple statistical techniques to evaluate these criteria and demonstrate them in a case study assessing the cross-cultural universality of nostalgia conceptions. The proposed methodology is generative and provides a viable alternative to the restrictive multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis procedures that have impeded progress in this research area.