CROSS-CULTURAL CAREER PSYCHOLOGY - COMMENT ON FOUAD, HARMON, AND BORGEN (1997) AND TRACEY, WATANABE, AND SCHNEIDER (1997)

This article uses the theoretical framework of cultural validity and c ultural specificity in career psychology proposed by F. T. L. Leong an d M. Brown (1995) to comment on the theoretical and methodological iss ues raised by N. A. Fouad, L. W. Harmon, and N. H. Borgen (1997) and T . J. G. Tracey, N. Watanabe, and P. L. Schneider (1997) in the Special Section on Cross-Cultural Career Psychology. In terms of theoretical issues, the important distinction between etic and emic approaches to cross-cultural research is discussed,as well as the role of the cultur al context in understanding vocational behavior. Methodologically, the specific issues surrounding the problem of equivalence of measurement (functional, conceptual, linguistic, and metric equivalence) as it re lates to the two studies are discussed. Finally, the importance of stu dies of both internal and external validity as means of advancing cros s-cultural career psychology is highlighted.