Abstract
Culture is a broad term that refers to attitudes, social behaviours, norms, and beliefs held by a given population. It can manifest in different ways, such as social behaviours and religion. Given the influence of culture on our behaviour in society, these different cultural characteristics may have implications for the experience of psychological injury and how it should be understood in the context of an independent psychological examination for the court. Understanding cultural differences is becoming increasingly important in Canada due to the heterogeneity of Canada’s population. Indeed, 10% of Canada’s population are of either Indian or Chinese origin. To increase reliability of their assessments to individuals from these countries, assessors should develop a deeper understanding of unique cultural characteristics that can affect independent assessment presentation and ultimately, interpretation and conclusions related to information and test results gathered in the assessment. This review aimed to outline unique Indian and Chinese cultural aspects that may contribute to variation in psychological injury expression, perception, test interpretation, and conclusions for court. After searching the research literature, 28 articles met the review criteria. Overall, the results demonstrated several unique cultural factors that can affect psychological symptoms, including family relationships, symptom somatization, stigma, and language. This review discusses similarities and differences between Indian and Chinese cultures and potential implications for assessments by independent psychological examiners.