Peer Review

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

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Reviewed:: Dec 22, 2013 by Psychology

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Overview:: Online Readings in Psychology and Culture (ORPC) is an official publication of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology. ORPC is an open access journal (that is also free for authors). Wolfgang Friedlmeier, of Grand Valley State University (GVSU), serves as editor. Since its inception, approximately 100 articles have been published. Not only are all of the articles freely accessible on the website (http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/orpc/) but also articles may be duplicated as long as the source is cited. (The material is copyrighted.) From the site: "The online readings consist of essays, reflections, data-oriented segments that reflect current trends and discussions in cross-cultural psychology and related fields. A central goal of ORPC is to complement other resources (textbooks, handbooks, journals) and to provide an open and updated forum. Consisting of short contributions relating to many aspects of the interface between psychology and culture, the ORPC is designed to be used by researchers, educators and advanced students." The psychology section of this initiative includes documents ranging from “gray papers” to much longer papers useful for supplementing a current class focused on the topics at hand, or even potentially replacing the use of a regular textbook with a good selection of the articles made available in this resource. All papers are readily available in web format for the abstract and citation information, and in PDF format for downloading/viewing the full article/text.
Type of Material:: A collection of open journal articles
Recommended Uses:: From the website: ORPC may be used: (1) As updated material about current trends and discussions in Cross-Cultural Psychology for all interested readers. (2) As supplemental material for courses such as Cross-Cultural Psychology, Cultural Psychology, Human Diversity, or any other course that focuses on the interrelationships between psychology and culture. (3) As introductory readings in one or more courses not explicitly focusing on culture but one in which the instructor wants to infuse the course content with various perspectives concerning culture and human thought and behavior. For instance, courses in introductory psychology, human development, social psychology, or personality would be enhanced by a careful selection of the readings. (4) As the core material of a particular course of study that is being designed at either the undergraduate or graduate level. (5) As source material for projects that may be required as part of one's field of study.
Technical Requirements:: • This resource requires an Internet connection and a compatible browser. Adobe Reader is suggested, although PDF documents open in browsers perfectly. The site was tested using Windows 7, Mozilla Firefox (v10.0.2), Internet Explorer (v8.0.7), and Google Chrome (v25.0.1). It is compatible with Safari on iPad3 and iPhone4. Mac OS and other mobile devices were not tested. ADAA compliance was not tested. • Note: Only members of the GVSU community may upload content for publication through this resource.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: The learner will develop a deeper understanding of the interrelationships between psychology and culture.
Target Student Population:: The material is most appropriate for upper-division undergraduate or graduate students in courses covering, in whole or in part, some aspect of cross-cultural psychology. Courses might include the following: Cross-Cultural Psychology, Cultural Psychology, Human Diversity, Human Development, Social Psychology, and Personality.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: • No atypical technical skills are needed. • The articles are professional journal articles and, therefore, require fairly advanced reading/comprehension skills. • Some general background in psychology would be useful to best understand the materials presented in this repository. However, the articles are written in more of an essay style than the typical research-orientated journal article; thus, they may be somewhat easier for students without a substantial background in psychology to read and understand.

Content Quality

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Strengths:: • Articles available on the site are reviewed for revisions and acceptance by an editorial board and external reviewers. This review process helps ensure the quality of the contributions. • The material presented as articles/texts in this repository are from published articles or materials presented at conferences/unpublished manuscripts. An initial review of a sample of these numerous (approximately 100+) files confirmed that this site is an excellent resource of wonderful, high-quality materials.
Concerns:: • This resource, being part of a much-larger institution-wide initiative, will likely continue to grow and fill in the gaps. That being said, there are a number of sub-groups that contain only one file to support them. Over time, this will likely improve, though it would appear more appealing to the general viewer if additional content was added in these areas.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: • The articles are extremely useful to increase students' knowledge of cross-cultural issues and also to provide impetus for discussion of these issues. Topical areas covered are diverse and include historical perspectives on the study of psychology and culture, theoretical and methodological issues, indigenous approaches, general psychological issues in cultural perspective, social psychology and culture, developmental psychology and culture, applied psychology and culture, migration and acculturation, biological psychology and culture, health/clinical psychology and culture, and teaching of psychology and culture. • This repository of articles can be used to supplement a class that includes the topic of diversity in various facets of psychology, ranging from intelligence, to methodology of studying cultures, to numerous other areas of interest. It presents a very broad topical range with many potential applications inside and outside of the classroom.
Concerns:: None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

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Strengths:: • The design is crisp and easy to navigate. • Links within PDF documents work and readily assist the user. PDF downloads into browsers load quickly. • An effective search engine further enhances ease of use. • Visitors do not need to have an account to access documents and other information. • In addition to the repository aspect, this site also includes additional social sharing features to allow the user to readily share content to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, GooglePlus, E-mail, or to use the general share function to link with a host of other services. The site also allows comments to be posted to each article, along with the ability to subscribe to each particular article so that updates will be sent if any are posted. The site appears to index most frequented items and allows the user to select the Most Popular link to access these items readily. Link-backs are found on every page, even several levels deep into an article, and these are very useful for navigation. Additional positive features include a searchable author index that is alphabetized and that links all papers related to an author; an FAQ explaining the history of the campus initiative; explanations to the authors on following procedures for submission; and the ability to sign up for E-mail notices of new publications posted in the ORPC. Overall, the site is very well designed.
Concerns:: • The site encourages interactivity via built-in social features; however, these features did not appear to be in significant use in any of the articles that were sampled as part of the review. At present, there is not much engagement with the content on this site with the exception of the search and read functions, but the site serves this specific purpose quite well. • One recommendation regarding instructions might be to provide within the FAQ or on the homepage several “quick tips” on how to best navigate the site (i.e., users may sort by author, by topic/subtopic, etc.).

Other Issues and Comments:: Online Readings in Psychology and Culture is a very well designed site and a fabulous initiative on the part of GVSU.
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