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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including intercultural knowledge, cross-cultural competence, and distinction between attribute-based and performance-based conceptualizations of cultural competence.

The 347 articles published in JCCP during its first full decade are assessed on a number of dimensions. The primary dimensions are (1) citizenship of authors, (2) culture or ethnic groups studied, and (3) psychological topics which were the foci in the research. This analysis forms the basis for an extensive editorial report. It is assumed that this summary of the decade will be of interest to the readers of JCCP, and that the data and various trends which are pointed out will be helpful to researchers as they plan and conduct future research in this area of psychological inquiry. The information may also be useful in altering future editorial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

College students in West Germany, the Netherlands, India, and the United States made birth-planning "decisions" for forty hypothetical family situations. The situations depicted eight familial characteristics which could be descriptive of families in any country where there is monogamous marriage, where it is expected that the husband (father) should be the major provider, and where the wife (mother) should be chiefly responsible for activities involving the home and children. Comparisons of responses revealed large similarities across national samples in thinking about the family in the abstract. Some irregularities in decisions across samples were also evident. It is suggested that a similarity in thinking regarding family structure may underlie the cultural differences found by earlier crossnational family research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The differential availability and use of television around the world serves to highlight some persistent methodological problems frequently encountered in cross-cultural psychological research. Focal antecedent variables that exist prior to a study and focal consequent variables which occur later in time should be discussed in terms of focal theory. A major problem in cross-cultural research is to determine the extent to which ambient factors can provide plausible alternative explanations for any observed differences between cultures caused by some focal variable. Various ways in which television can be used as either an independent variable, a mediating variable, or as a dependent variable are summarized. A brief discussion of problems involved in studying the effect of television on the cognitive abilities of Native Alaskan children illustrates some of the methodological problems in cross-cultural media research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Editorial. Rationalizes the impending expansion of the `Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology' into a bimonthly publication. Formation and development of the journal; Reasons for the expansion; Retention of the journal's editorial policy.