Cross-Cultural Analysis

Intended to bridge the gap between the latest methodological developments and cross-cultural research, this interdisciplinary resource presents the latest strategies for analyzing cross-cultural data. Techniques are demonstrated through the use of applications that employ cross-national data sets such as the latest European Social Survey. With an emphasis on the generalized latent variable approach, internationally prominent researchers from a variety of fields explain how the methods work, how to apply them, and how they relate to other methods presented in the book. Syntax and graphical and verbal explanations of the techniques are included. Online resources, available at www.routledge.com/9781138690271, include some of the data sets and syntax commands used in the book. Applications from the behavioral and social sciences that use real data-sets demonstrate: The use of samples from 17 countries to validate the resistance to change scale across these nations How to test the cross-national invariance properties of social trust The interplay between social structure, religiosity, values, and social attitudes A comparison of anti-immigrant attitudes and patterns of religious orientations across European countries.The second edition includes six new chapters and two revised ones presenting exciting developments in the literature of cross-cultural analysis including topics such as approximate measurement invariance, alignment optimization, sensitivity analyses, a mixed-methods approach to test for measurement invariance, and a multilevel structural equation modeling approach to explain noninvariance. This book is intended for researchers, practitioners, and advanced students interested in cross-cultural research. Because the applications span a variety of disciplines, the book will appeal to researchers and students in: psychology, political science, sociology, education, marketing and economics, geography, criminology, psychometrics, epidemiology, and public health, as well as those interested in methodology. It is also appropriate for an advanced methods course in cross-cultural analysis.

"As was the case with the original volume, this updated volume fills an enormous need in the cross-cultural research literature. It provides a single go-to source of chapters on the methodological and statistical analysis challenges unique to cross-cultural research—or, for that matter, any research project in which group comparisons across levels and time are proposed. Each chapter clearly presents a unique challenge, why it is important, and how it may be addressed. This volume is a valuable contribution not only to cross-cultural researchers but to any researcher examining the similarities and differences between entities (people, groups, teams, organizations, etc.). It can be used as a reference book or as a supplemental textbook in advanced courses on cross-cultural research." – Robert J. Vandenberg, University of Georgia, USA"This is a must-have book for anyone doing quantitative cross-cultural research in any discipline of social and behavioral sciences. Readers will appreciate book chapters prepared by prominent researchers for their practical and approachable presentations of core methods with examples that address major analytical issues and challenges." - Young Ik Cho, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA

Eldad Davidov is Professor of Sociology at the University of Cologne, Germany and the University of Zurich, SwitzerlandPeter Schmidt is Professor Emeritus of Methodology of Social Research at the University of Giessen and Humboldt Research Fellow of the Polish Foundation for Basic ResearchJaak Billiet is Professor Emeritus at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, BelgiumBart Meuleman is Associate Professor and head of department at the Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO) at the University of Leuven (Belgium)