3.1 - Issues And Debates✅

Question 1

Define culture bias?

Answer 1

Interpreting and judging behaviour and or people from another culture against the standards of your own - ignoring other cultures

• can lead to misunderstanding behaviours in different cultures

Question 2

Define universality?

Answer 2

Believing that some behaviours are the same for all cultures

Question 3

Define ethnocentrism?

Answer 3

An issue of cultural bias
- seeing the world from ones own cultural perspective - emphasising the behaviour of ones own culture believing the superiority of own culture

• interpretations of behaviour could be bias and perpetuate stereotypes
• tendency to see your own beliefs, customs and behaviour as ‘normal’

Question 4

Define cultural relativism?

Answer 4

Understanding and explaining behaviour from the point of view of the culture within which it originates, rather than viewing it through the lens of another culture - helps to achieve cultural sensitivity and avoid ethnocentric bias (not imposing cultural values of one culture on another culture)

Question 5

Outline the Chitling test - what’s the purpose?

Answer 5

Designed to demonstrate differences in understanding and culture between races, specifically African Americans and whites

• used in determining how streetwise someone is - has no studies demonstrating its validity
• demonstrates how cultural content on intelligence tests (IQ for example) may lead to culturally biased score results

Question 6

Outline and explain the WEIRD problem?

Answer 6

Western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic

• most psychology studies use WEIRD participants (68% from USA and 96% from western nations)
• impacts understanding on human behaviour

eg research from Asch, Zimbardo and Milgram assume all human behaviour would be the same regardless of location/culture

Question 7

Explain the strange situation as an example of the problem surrounding WEIRD?

Answer 7

• measured attachment between mothers and babies
• based on American ideas about separation anxiety and child-rearing practises (which may differ)
• when carried out on Japanese children - they responded with extreme anxiety, as separation from mother was very unusual in their culture (study had to be stopped early due to distress)
• ethnocentric - expects all behaviour to align with western behaviour

Question 8

Outline research support for cultural differences?

Answer 8

common example of what is ‘normal’ somewhere and ‘abnormal’ elsewhere is hearing voices

Afro-Caribbeans in UK 7 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia

• spiritual practises involving ‘hearing voices’ (common in their culture) - which can lead to wrong diagnoses (can impact life ext)

Question 9

Explain how to reduce cultural bias - give 4?

Answer 9

• do not attempt to extrapolate findings to cultures that are not represented in the research sample
• use researcher are native to the culture being investigated
• carry out cross culture research rather than research with a sole culture
• be sensitive to cultural norms when designing research/reporting findings

Question 10

Outline examples of cultural bias in psychology - reference social influence?

Answer 10

Cross-cultural replications of obedience and conformity studies have revealed wide difference in resistance to influence - when ASCH and Milgrams studies were replicated in other parts of the world very different results were obtained

• research only reflected the cultural norms of the place of the original study

Question 11

First part of spec needs finishing!