Putting Culture Into Context: Cultural and Cross-Cultural Perspectives in Career Development and Transition Research and Practice

Increased globalization and high international mobility in modern sports have illuminated issues of cultural diversity among sport participants. The universal knowledge about "athletes in general" seems insufficient to explain the behavior of athletes from different cultures. In applied work, it has been shown that what works well in one culture may not be suitable in another (Duda & Allison, 1990; Duda & Hayashi, 1998; Gill, 2007; Si & Lee, 2007). Such increased awareness of cultural diversity in sports has stimulated sport and exercise psychology researchers and practitioners to consider culture as an important context that mediates psychological processes (Peters & Williams, 2006; Ryba, 2007; Schinke & Hanrahan, 2009). Culture is defined as "a social system of shared symbols, meanings, perspectives, and social actions that are mutually negotiated by people in their relationships with others" (Stead, 2004, p. 392) or, even shorter, as "a historically transmitted pattern of meanings embodied in symbols" (Geertz, 1973, p. 89). Because people internalize meanings from their cultural contexts, it is impossible to separate their development and behavior from these contexts. It is also important to note that cultural context is fairly rigid; therefore, it cannot be readily changed by an individual. To further deepen our understanding of athletic career development and transitions, we need to consider athletes in their cultural contexts using psychological approaches that deal specifically with culture.