2 - Cultural Bias

Question 1

Define cultural bias?

Answer 1

Drawing conclusions that don’t validly represent all cultures

Question 2

Which culture/type of people does psychological research predominantly represent?

Answer 2

WEIRD people

Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised Rich Democracies

Question 3

Which cultures are often underrepresented + therefore seen as ‘abnormal’?

Answer 3

Poor, non-western, less developed cultures

Question 4

What percentage of research ppts are from the USA?

Answer 4

68%

Question 5

Define ethnocentrism?

Answer 5

A type of cultural bias whereby one believes in the superiority of one’s own culture + consequently judges other cultures by the same standards

Question 6

Give an example of ethnocentrism

Answer 6

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation

• Research on US mothers + infants
• Attachment type criteria based on US standards
• Other cultures often diagnosed as having insecure attachments because the criteria doesn’t fit them (e.g. high insecure-resistant diagnosis in Japan because of separation distress)

Question 7

What is an etic approach? What is this approach associated with?

Answer 7

Looking at behaviour from outside a given culture, then imposing conclusions drawn elsewhere upon that culture
(Associated with: cultural bias + ethnocentrism)

Question 8

What is an emic approach? What is this approach associated with?

Answer 8

Looking at behaviour from within a given culture + drawing conclusions specific to that culture
(Associated with: cultural relativism)

Question 9

Give an example of using an etic approach

Answer 9

Schizophrenia diagnosis

• US schizophrenia symptoms are imposed upon African groups during diagnosis
• Symptoms are actually culturally specific (e.g. one symptom ‘hearing voices’ works in US but cannot diagnose African groups, as this is a positive spiritual aspect of their culture, not an indicator of schizophrenia)
• This has led to overdiagnosing African groups with schizophrenia
• Schizophrenia rates reported as 47/100,000 compared to US 6/100,000

Question 10

What is the opposite of cultural bias?

Answer 10

Cultural relativism

Question 11

Define cultural relativism?

Answer 11

Recognising that there are differences between cultures + so the only way to understand behaviour is to look from within that culture, using an emic approach

Question 12

What theory does cultural relativism reject?

Answer 12

Universality - believes behaviours are culturally specific

Question 13

What type of researchers are good when using an emic approach?

Answer 13

Indigenous researchers

Question 14

Universality is bad because it can cause gender + cultural bias. How can universality be good?

Answer 14

Can understand some behaviours which are universal behaviours, allowing: communication between cultures + discovery of general (nomothetic) laws and principles

Question 15

Give an example of a behaviour which is universal

Answer 15

Basic facial expressions (identified by Ekman)

Question 16

What are the 4 evaluation points for cultural bias?

Answer 16

POS - Cultural psychology has emerged
NEG - Caused ethnic stereotyping
NEG - Caused non-valid conclusions in famous studies
NEG - Outdated concept

Question 17

Explain the positive evaluation point for cultural bias

Answer 17

Cultural psychology has emerged

• Recognising bias has promoted cultural psychology
• This psychology encourages: emic approach + culturally-based techniques in indigenous research
• Has led to better understanding of behaviours in different cultures + minimised future bias

Question 18

Explain 3 negative evaluation points for cultural bias

Answer 18

Caused ethnic stereotyping

• Biased, ethnocentric research has stereotyped certain ethnicities as ‘abnormal’
• E.g. WWI pilots IQ tested using recall of US presidents, so many non-US stereotyped as abnormally unintelligent
• These abnormal stereotypes can have negative implications for individuals lives, e.g. limiting employment opportunities

Caused non-valid conclusions in famous studies

• Many high-profile studies have been generalised to diff cultures
• E.g. Asch’s conclusions on conformity were generalised to collectivist cultures but Smith + Bond later found they had higher conformity
• Our psychological knowledge is limited as many key conclusions about human behaviour may only fit the originally researched country

Outdated concept

• Cultural bias is often referred to being between individualist + collectivist cultures
• Globalisation has reduced differences in cultures + to a certain extent removed the individualist and collectivist categories
• E.g. Kroonenberg found differences within cultures were 150% higher than differences between cultures
• Cultural bias may be less significant now/exist in a different way, such as between different types of areas (rural + urban) in the same culture

Question 19

What is a piece of evidence to suggest ‘individualist’ and ‘collectivist’ cultures may not exist as two categories anymore?

Answer 19

• Takano + Osaka (1999) did 15 studies comparing US + Japan

- Only 1 provided evidence for individualist/collectivist differences