3.4.3 Culture Bias (Con) Flashcards
Most psychological knowledge is based on what population?
WEIRD population
What is the weird population?
Westernised Educated Industrial Rich Democracies
(Smith and bond) of the studies in a British psychological textbook how many were American?
66%
(Smith and bond) of the studies in a British psychological textbook how many were European?
32%
(Smith and bond) of the studies in a British psychological textbook how many were from the non western world?
2%
(Sears) how many psychological studies use undergraduates as participants?
82%
(Sears) of the undergraduates used in research how many are psychology students?
51%
According to stats psychological research isn’t diverse so what are we drawing conclusions from and why is this an issue?
A small sample
Not representative
When does culture bias occur?
When people of one culture make assumptions about the behaviour of people from another based on their own cultural norms and practice
What is culture?
Learned set of behaviours, norms and values of a group
Just because research was conducted in one country doesn’t mean what?
There is culture bias
Give an example of a study in the US that is not culturally bias?
Loftus and palmer
Memory isn’t something that varies across cultures
What does the concept of culture go beyond?
Geographical locations
Give an example of how culture can vary within a culture?
Subcultures they don’t have a geographical identity but have a common set of customs and beliefs
How can we regard different historical periods?
Different cultures
The findings of early research may not generalise, such as what?
Bowlby at the time women were at home providing care now norms have changed and most women work
(cross cultural) psychologists are interested in studying etics and emics what are these?
etics - universal behaviours e.g. fight or flight
emics - culturally specific behaviours
(cross cultural) what can cross cultural studies be seen as and why?
quasi experiments
the IV is naturally occurring (culture)
(cross cultural) cross cultural studies allow us to consider whether behaviours are what?
nature (universal) or nurture (specific)
(cross cultural) what research did Buss carry out?
research into gender differences in mate selection
(cross cultural) what did Buss find and what does this suggest?
women go for older richer men
men go for younger attractive women
suggests a universal nature behaviour
(cross cultural) what can cross cultural research lead to?
culture bias
(ethnocentrism) what is ethnocentrism?
using your own culture as a basis for judgement of others
(ethnocentrism) what does ethnocentrism compromise/
objectivity
(ethnocentrism) what are the two ways maracek & mustin suggested research could be culturally bias?
alpha bias
beta bias
(ethnocentrism) what does alpha bias refer to?
overemphasising difference between groups, devaluing other groups and their practices
(ethnocentrism) give an example of alpha bias:
Jung - travelled to Africa, America and India to investigate what he called “primitive people” and cultures
he viewed black people as less developed
(ethnocentrism) what does beta bias refer to?
ignoring or minimising cultural differences
(ethnocentrism) how can ethnocentrism lead to beta bias?
if tools developed in the western world are assumed to have the same meaning in all cultures and used there - imposed etic
(ethnocentrism) how does luria et al’s research demonstrate ethnocentrism?
Luria’s IQ test was developed in the West and contained assumptions about intelligence - log was the odd one
but rural Russian dwellers were disadvantaged from their view the intelligent answer was hammer
(ethnocentrism) how could Kohlberg’s moral development research demonstrate beta bias?
moral dilemmas and stages devised in the West
the dilemmas may only be applicable to situations that would arise in the West making it unfair to use to measure moral development of non western children.
(ethnocentrism) how could the criteria used to diagnose schizophrenia lead to beta bias?
DSM-V and ICD-10 developed in the West their use to diagnose schizophrenia in other areas may not be appropriate as what we view as symptoms could be normal and acceptable in other cultures e.g. hearing voices
(ethnocentrism) how could Ainsworth’s research into strange situations and children’s attachments have beta bias?
sample of 100 middle class American families can't be widely generalised children of different cultures may have different attachment styles or may be taught to react differently to strangers
(cultural relativism) what is cultural relativism?
opposite of ethnocentrism
idea all cultures are worthy of respect and we need to study them and understand how they see the world
(cultural relativism) what does alpha bias relate to?
the assumption of real differences between cultures leads psychologists to overlook universal behaviours
(cultural relativism) what does beta bias refer to?
assumption the group of participants is representative of the whole country
(difference or bias) what can it be easy to confuse?
bias as differences
(difference or bias) some studies have found important cultural differences but what is it important to ensure?
they are real differences and not the result of bias
(difference or bias) Myers & Diener found higher levels of SWB in individualistic cultures than collectivist but how could this be due to culture bias?
happiness questionnaires to measure SWB were developed in western individualist cultures and then applied to other cultures.
inappropriate to do so as happiness has different meanings in different cultures
(what psychologists can do) psychologists need to be aware of bias and take steps to do what?
minimise alpha & bias
(what psychologists can do) psychologists need to be aware of what?
how they design their research
(what psychologists can do) if research is being carried out in non western societies who should it be carried out by? why?
indigenous psychologies - members of that culture
because this will address bias and present alternative views of behaviour
(what psychologists can do) how did Buss overcome issues of culture bias in his research into sex differences in mate choice?
he had natives collect the research
questionnaires also translated for each country to represent their values
(what psychologists can do) the importance of indigenous psychology is best illustrated where?
Africa - little psychological research takes place
(what psychologists can do) which population group are Africa’s psychologists mainly from and why is this an issue?
white group
91.1% of the population is not white
bias could occur
(what psychologists can do) what has emerged to combat the issue of white psychologists in south Africa?
afrocentrism
(what psychologists can do) Afrocentrism involves research in Africa being African centred and expressing what?
African values
(what psychologists can do) afrocentrism - what cnnot be done and why?
applying European values to non europens
irrelevant and devaluing
(conclusions) is culture bias a problem?
yes even cross cultural research raises issues of bias
lack of diversity in research
(conclusions) will psychology ever be rid of culture bias?
no
even within populations not everyone shares the same culture e.g. subcultures
it also varies overtime
