Is introductory psychology universal?
Separate shared scientific questions from the local design of a course and the populations behind its claims.
Three different questions
Does every institution offer a course called Introductory Psychology? Do different courses teach similar material? Do the psychological claims generalize across populations? These require different evidence. The selected syllabi answer how particular courses are organized. They cannot establish worldwide prevalence or universal content.
Generalization is a question to teach
Henrich, Heine and Norenzayan questioned broad claims about human psychology built from narrow participant populations. Their review is a reason to examine sampling and context. It does not show that every psychological process differs across cultures or that every Western study is unusable. This source was reviewed at abstract and publication-record level.
Common goals can allow local choices
The ICUPO project frames undergraduate outcomes for adaptation in local and regional settings. It concerns degree education; its landing page is not evidence that all countries teach the same introductory course. The Fraser Valley outline provides a specific example of including Indigenous psychology in an introduction.
What this reference can currently support
The course examples here are from Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom; AP and IB add qualification frameworks. English-language availability shaped the selection. Africa, Latin America, much of Asia and non-English teaching traditions are insufficiently represented. A global audience should not be mistaken for completed global coverage.