Cross-cultural studies help us understand the influences of globalization on behaviour. How so? Imagine you're a teen in New York City and your friend lives in Tokyo, yet you both are obsessed with the same K-pop band. That's globalization in action!

These studies rely on constructs that identify common aspects across cultures, just like everyone around the globe enjoys music but the type may differ.

Hofstede's cultural dimensions and Schwartz's theory of basic values are like universal translators for cultures. Think of them as Google Translate for cultural behaviour!

These constructs measure differences between cultures. For example, some cultures might be more individualistic (like the US) whereas others could be more collective (like Japan).

They also track changes over time due to globalization, just like seeing more western food chains popping up in Asian countries over time.

Cultural scores are based on data collected from individuals, often via self-reported questionnaires. But there's a catch! Just like when you sometimes exaggerate on your homework hours to your parents, people may not always report their behaviours accurately.

Making sense of the cultural dimensions from individual data is like solving a complex puzzle, you need a lot of pieces (data) and even then, the image is not entirely clear.