Cross-Cultural Generalization and Universality

Abstract

Different meanings of the concept universality are distinguished and ordered according to the degree to which they are open to empirical control. Universality and specificity are considered as relative rather than absolute concepts. A relationship between the analysis of universality and the analysis of comparability or psychometric equivalence of data is established. An integrated approach to the analysis of universality and equivalence within the context of Generalizability Theory is outlined and illustrated with an example.