Abstract
The use of measurement instruments in crosscultural settings: methodological issues. In the European context where we live, the situations where languages and cultures are in contact are not the exception, but the rule. Furthermore, the history of the Europe that we know is a history of contact, interchange and, in short, of continuous interaction between different languages and cultures. What is strange and improbable is uniformity. In fact, only two countries, Iceland and Portugal have nowadays one and only one language shared by all their inhabitants. In this context, the construction, translation, adaptation and use of measuring instruments in the field of social sciences in general, and in the field of Psychology in particular, are associated with a specific set of problems that require a specific methodological answer. In this way, we consider that facing the discussion in terms of applied methodology is the only solution that allows bilingual people to have available measuring instruments suitable for each of the realities that are generated by a situation where languages and cultures are in contact. It is not only necessary to know which is the basic methodological groundwork with regard to the construction, translation, adaptation and use of the measuring instruments, but it is also necessary to know in great detail which are the requirements and limitations that the context imposes for the application of a known and well-founded methodology. Although this affirmation seems to be very obvious, we have been able to verify that it is not taken into account in different researches and doctoral dissertations made in the Basque Country. In many of these works measuring instruments that have been translated but not adapted to the Basque speaking population are used. In the same way, we have noticed that the number of standarized questionnaires and tests adapted to the Basque language is very small, which makes it clear that the lack of instruments to properly evaluate social and psychological variables in our cultural context is a real problem. In addition to making this fact clear, in this paper a reflexion is made regarding the basic methodological aspects that must be taken into account if there is an intention to use measuring instruments in a proper way in situations where different languages and cultures coexist.
