Cultural Dimensions & Major Depressive Disorder (DP IB Psychology): Revision Note

Cultural dimensions

• Geert Hofstede, a professor at Maastricht University, surveyed over 60,000 IBM employees from 50+ countries between 1971-1973 using questionnaires on cultural attitudes and behaviours

• He concluded that cultural dimensions can be used to describe universal patterns of behaviour across cultures

• One of the most researched cultural dimensions is individualism vs. collectivism

Key cultural dimension: individualism vs. collectivism

Individualistic cultures

• Individualistic cultures focus on ‘I/me’ rather than ‘we/us’

• They value independence, competition, and personal achievement

• Members of individualistic cultures may enjoy freedom and choice but risk isolation and lack of support

Collectivist cultures

• Collectivist cultures focus on groups such as family, colleagues, or community

• They value interdependence, cooperation and group harmony

• Members of collectivist cultures may enjoy a sense of belonging and community but may feel reduced personal identity and autonomy

Evaluation of cultural dimensions

Strengths

• The large-scale, global survey produced extensive quantitative data which increases the reliability and generalisability of the results

• Research is regularly reviewed and updated, reducing the risk of temporal validity issues

Limitations

• The findings may be reductionist as they oversimplify complex cultural behaviours into rigid and inflexible categories

• Sample bias is an issue, as the IBM employees were not equally representative of all cultures

  • E.g., there were more employees from the USA and developed countries 

Prevalence of MDD across cultures

• Prevalence rates show how common a disorder is within a population over a set time period, e.g, Jan 2021-Jan 2022

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates

  • 3.8% of the global population suffers from MDD at any given time

  • This includes 5% of adults and 5.7% of adults aged 60+

  • This equals roughly 280 million people worldwide

• The prevalence of MDD in the UK is 0.17 (around 1 in 6 adults with MDD)

• Prevalence varies across cultures

Research support for prevalence of MDD across cultures

Colla et al. (2006)

Aim:

• To investigate prevalence of MDD among women in individualistic vs. collectivist cultures, and in urban vs. rural environments

 Participants:

• 657 women from rural Nigeria, urban Nigeria (collectivist), rural Canada, and urban USA (individualistic)

 Procedure:

• The women were interviewed on a wide range of topics: education, religion, motherhood and work roles

• MDD was diagnosed using established criteria

 Results:

• Lowest prevalence of MDD was in rural Nigeria (collectivist)

• Highest prevalence of MDD was in urban USA (individualistic)

 Conclusion:

• Traditional, collectivist lifestyles (e.g., rural Nigeria) may protect against MDD

• Urban, individualistic lifestyles (e.g., USA) may increase risk and severity of MDD

Link to concepts

Bias

• Colla’s study predicted higher MDD prevalence in individualistic cultures, which may have led to confirmation bias, i.e., the researchers looked for examples of behaviours/responses that supported their hypothesis

• The fact that this research (and others like it) was conducted by researchers from an American university means that culture bias may also have prevailed in the form of assumptions made about other cultures

  • To remedy this, the researchers should conduct emic research and use reflexivity to examine any possible bias on their part.

Measurement

• Using interviews to determine MDD symptoms/experience is an inexact, non-scientific method which can give rise to subjective interpretation

• It can be argued that qualitative research demands such an approach but if the aim is to establish prevalence rates (which are quantitative), then perhaps another research method could have been used