3.4.3 Culture Bias (Con)

Question 1

Most psychological knowledge is based on what population?

Answer 1

WEIRD population

Question 2

What is the weird population?

Answer 2

Westernised
Educated
Industrial
Rich
Democracies

Question 3

(Smith and bond) of the studies in a British psychological textbook how many were American?

Answer 3

66%

Question 4

(Smith and bond) of the studies in a British psychological textbook how many were European?

Answer 4

32%

Question 5

(Smith and bond) of the studies in a British psychological textbook how many were from the non western world?

Answer 5

2%

Question 6

(Sears) how many psychological studies use undergraduates as participants?

Answer 6

82%

Question 7

(Sears) of the undergraduates used in research how many are psychology students?

Answer 7

51%

Question 8

According to stats psychological research isn’t diverse so what are we drawing conclusions from and why is this an issue?

Answer 8

A small sample

Not representative

Question 9

When does culture bias occur?

Answer 9

When people of one culture make assumptions about the behaviour of people from another based on their own cultural norms and practice

Question 10

What is culture?

Answer 10

Learned set of behaviours, norms and values of a group

Question 11

Just because research was conducted in one country doesn’t mean what?

Answer 11

There is culture bias

Question 12

Give an example of a study in the US that is not culturally bias?

Answer 12

Loftus and palmer

Memory isn’t something that varies across cultures

Question 13

What does the concept of culture go beyond?

Answer 13

Geographical locations

Question 14

Give an example of how culture can vary within a culture?

Answer 14

Subcultures they don’t have a geographical identity but have a common set of customs and beliefs

Question 15

How can we regard different historical periods?

Answer 15

Different cultures

Question 16

The findings of early research may not generalise, such as what?

Answer 16

Bowlby at the time women were at home providing care now norms have changed and most women work

Question 17

(cross cultural) psychologists are interested in studying etics and emics what are these?

Answer 17

etics - universal behaviours e.g. fight or flight

emics - culturally specific behaviours

Question 18

(cross cultural) what can cross cultural studies be seen as and why?

Answer 18

quasi experiments

the IV is naturally occurring (culture)

Question 19

(cross cultural) cross cultural studies allow us to consider whether behaviours are what?

Answer 19

nature (universal)
or nurture (specific)

Question 20

(cross cultural) what research did Buss carry out?

Answer 20

research into gender differences in mate selection

Question 21

(cross cultural) what did Buss find and what does this suggest?

Answer 21

women go for older richer men
men go for younger attractive women
suggests a universal nature behaviour

Question 22

(cross cultural) what can cross cultural research lead to?

Answer 22

culture bias

Question 23

(ethnocentrism) what is ethnocentrism?

Answer 23

using your own culture as a basis for judgement of others

Question 24

(ethnocentrism) what does ethnocentrism compromise/

Answer 24

objectivity

Question 25

(ethnocentrism) what are the two ways maracek & mustin suggested research could be culturally bias?

Answer 25

alpha bias

beta bias

Question 26

(ethnocentrism) what does alpha bias refer to?

Answer 26

overemphasising difference between groups, devaluing other groups and their practices

Question 27

(ethnocentrism) give an example of alpha bias:

Answer 27

Jung - travelled to Africa, America and India to investigate what he called “primitive people” and cultures
he viewed black people as less developed

Question 28

(ethnocentrism) what does beta bias refer to?

Answer 28

ignoring or minimising cultural differences

Question 29

(ethnocentrism) how can ethnocentrism lead to beta bias?

Answer 29

if tools developed in the western world are assumed to have the same meaning in all cultures and used there - imposed etic

Question 30

(ethnocentrism) how does luria et al’s research demonstrate ethnocentrism?

Answer 30

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

Question 31

(ethnocentrism) how could Kohlberg’s moral development research demonstrate beta bias?

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

(ethnocentrism) how could the criteria used to diagnose schizophrenia lead to beta bias?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

(ethnocentrism) how could Ainsworth’s research into strange situations and children’s attachments have beta bias?

Answer 33

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

Question 34

(cultural relativism) what is cultural relativism?

Answer 34

opposite of ethnocentrism

idea all cultures are worthy of respect and we need to study them and understand how they see the world

Question 35

(cultural relativism) what does alpha bias relate to?

Answer 35

the assumption of real differences between cultures leads psychologists to overlook universal behaviours

Question 36

(cultural relativism) what does beta bias refer to?

Answer 36

assumption the group of participants is representative of the whole country

Question 37

(difference or bias) what can it be easy to confuse?

Answer 37

bias as differences

Question 38

(difference or bias) some studies have found important cultural differences but what is it important to ensure?

Answer 38

they are real differences and not the result of bias

Question 39

(difference or bias) Myers & Diener found higher levels of SWB in individualistic cultures than collectivist but how could this be due to culture bias?

Answer 39

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

Question 40

(what psychologists can do) psychologists need to be aware of bias and take steps to do what?

Answer 40

minimise alpha & bias

Question 41

(what psychologists can do) psychologists need to be aware of what?

Answer 41

how they design their research

Question 42

(what psychologists can do) if research is being carried out in non western societies who should it be carried out by? why?

Answer 42

indigenous psychologies - members of that culture

because this will address bias and present alternative views of behaviour

Question 43

(what psychologists can do) how did Buss overcome issues of culture bias in his research into sex differences in mate choice?

Answer 43

he had natives collect the research

questionnaires also translated for each country to represent their values

Question 44

(what psychologists can do) the importance of indigenous psychology is best illustrated where?

Answer 44

Africa - little psychological research takes place

Question 45

(what psychologists can do) which population group are Africa’s psychologists mainly from and why is this an issue?

Answer 45

white group
91.1% of the population is not white
bias could occur

Question 46

(what psychologists can do) what has emerged to combat the issue of white psychologists in south Africa?

Answer 46

afrocentrism

Question 47

(what psychologists can do) Afrocentrism involves research in Africa being African centred and expressing what?

Answer 47

African values

Question 48

(what psychologists can do) afrocentrism - what cnnot be done and why?

Answer 48

applying European values to non europens

irrelevant and devaluing

Question 49

(conclusions) is culture bias a problem?

Answer 49

yes even cross cultural research raises issues of bias

lack of diversity in research

Question 50

(conclusions) will psychology ever be rid of culture bias?

Answer 50

no
even within populations not everyone shares the same culture e.g. subcultures
it also varies overtime