Cross-Cultural Salad: A Bit Mixed. Review of Neil Warren, Studies in Cross-Cultural Psychology

Neil Warren has put together a volume containing contributions from five well-known cross-cultural investigators. According to the foreword, this book was intended to meet "the need for detailed high-level presentations and evaluations of particular areas of enquiry in cross-cultural psychology . . ." (p. ix). And, Warren says, the book was designed primarily for graduate students and "professional peers" who are interested in cross-cultural psychology. the two inferred goals would be: (1) an up-to-date and detailed account of particular research domains and (2) coverage of a variety of topics useful for graduate-level courses. Despite some individual instances of excellence, the volume as a whole fails on both accounts. As the author admits, the volume was delayed so much that more recent chapters by the same investigators (covering much the same research) have already appeared or will soon appear elsewhere. Also, a paucity of only five unrelated contributions leaves the book scattered over a domain so large that only the cross-cultural eclectic would find each chapter of interest.