About

I am a Professor Emeritus in Counseling Psychology at Washington State University. I received a B.S. degree in Mathematics (Lafayette College), a M.S. degree in Computer Science (University of Wisconsin), and a PhD in Psychology (University of Minnesota).

In a 30-year career at Washington State University (1985-2015) I conducted research on personality, psychological measurement, cross-cultural and indigenous psychology, and vocational psychology in special populations; taught courses in cross-cultural research, psychological assessment, and career counseling; chaired 49 doctoral dissertations and 11 master's theses; and served as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education. From 1982 to 1984, I was a Visiting Professor in the Department of Counseling and Guidance at De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines.

I have an international reputation for my research on culture and personality and have published extensively in top scientific journals, including invited reviews in Current Opinion in Psychology, Advances in Culture and Psychology, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Social and Personality Compass, and Journal of Personality. I edited the three-volume Praeger Handbook of Personality across Cultures (ABC-CLIO, 2017).

I am a former associate editor for the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and have served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Journal of Personality, Journal of Research in Personality, Personality and Social Psychology Review, Psychological Science, European Journal of Personality, and Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology.

Much of my research has addressed the following questions:

the extent to which the structure of personality traits is universal or unique across cultures;
whether personality inventories measure characteristics that are relevant for people in all cultures, or if we need to construct measures tailored to particular cultures;
whether meaningful and valid cultural differences in personality can be detected using existing inventories, or whether measurement biases or inequivalences make such comparisons inaccurate or misleading;
whether there are cultural differences in self-concepts and their relation to adjustment;
whether there are cultural differences in the cross-situational consistency and predictive validity of traits.

Much of this research was conducted in collaboration with my wife Marcia S. Katigbak, PhD, and a network of international psychologists, with grant support from the National Science Foundation and National Institute of Mental Health in the United States. Other research interests have included multicultural issues in counseling and assessment, and vocational psychology in special populations, interests that are reflected in most of the doctoral dissertations and master’s theses that I chaired during my career.