Value of cultural pluralism to the generalizability of psychological theories: A reexamination.

Argues that the limited generalizability of psychological theories and hypotheses may stem, in part, from a restricted sampling of psychological theorists and investigators and hence from the homogeneity of their background assumptions, biases, and values. Threats to generalizability at the hypothesis-testing, theory-development, and hypothesis-formation stages of research are discussed using examples from the literature. A cultural pluralism approach is recommended for the recruitment and training of socioculturally diverse psychologists, capable of conducting research in a wider variety of settings with a wider range of Ss. Types of short- and long-term location and recruitment techniques are discussed, and the promotion of the cultural pluralism perspective within the graduate curriculum is addressed. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)