5.2. Culture Bias

Question 1

What does most of traditional psychology represent and what does it mean?

Answer 1

• Represents a Western bias, as most psychologists are trained in the west
• This means that most psychological theory and research techniques have a basis in a western world view
• When it’s applied to other cultures, it reflects a culture bias
• However, as developing countries increase their involvement in psychological theory, this bias is being addressed

Question 2

What does the term WEIRD stand for?

Answer 2

Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised, Rich Democracies

Question 3

What did Henrich coin the term WEIRD to describe?

Answer 3

The group of people most likely to be studied by psychologists

Question 4

What does it mean if the norm or standard for a particular behaviour is set by WEIRD people?

Answer 4

The behaviour of people from non-Western, less educated, agricultural or poorer cultures are inevitably seen as abnormal, inferior or unusual.

Question 5

What did Hare-Mustin and Maracek say?

Answer 5

We can relate alpha and beta bias to culture as well as gender.

Question 6

How can alpha bias be related to culture as well as gender?

Answer 6

• Distinction is usually made between collectivist and individualistic cultures.
• We would expect individualistic cultures to be less conformist as they don’t work for the group norms.
• However, Takano reviewed 15 studies comparing US and Japan in terms of individualism and collectivism -? 14/15 studies did not support the common view about the diffs in conformity.
• This finding suggests the distinction between individualistic and collectivist cultures is no longer useful.

Question 7

How can beta bias be related to culture as well as gender?

Answer 7

• All people are the same so it’s reasonable to use the same theory/ method on all cultures.
• Psychologists use IQ tests devised by Western Psychologists to study intelligence in many cultures, therefore the view of intelligence applies to all cultures easily.
• However, Western societies state intelligence lies within the person, whereas collectivist cultures see intelligence as a functional relationship depending on shared knowledge between the individual and society.
• Therefore, if a western IQ test on a non-western individual, then they’re more likely to appear less intelligent -> imposed etic

Question 8

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 8

• The use of our own ethnic group as a basis for judgement about other groups
• A tendency to view the beliefs, customs and behaviours of our own group as normal and even superior, whereas those of other groups are strange or deviant.

Question 9

Alpha bias in ethnocentrism

Answer 9

• One’s own culture is considered to be different and better and consequence of this is that other cultures and their practice are devalued
• Ie individualistic cultures = independence valued but collectivist = dependent

Question 10

Beta bias in ethnocentrism

Answer 10

If psychologists believe their world is the only view ie IQ testing is ethnocentric as American IQ tests are used all over the world.

Question 11

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 11

The idea that all cultures are worthy of respect and that while studying another culture, we need to try to understand the way that a particular culture sees the world.

Question 12

Alpha bias in cultural relativism

Answer 12

• Assumptions of real diffs leads psychologists to overlook universals
• ie Mead’s research from gender where she initially said there were cultural gender diffs but later recognised there were universals

Question 13

Beta bias in cultural relativism

Answer 13

• Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be frequent in another.
• By assuming the same rules apply universally, we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but the diagnosis is relative to culture.

Question 14

What is imposed etic?

Answer 14

• Researcher creates a tool in one culture and expects it to work in another
• e.g. strange situation- Japanese children seem inferior to western

Question 15

Asch’s study

Answer 15

• Culturally biased -> conclusions used to explain conformity around world but argued it’s not reflective of universal human behaviour
• Ethnocentric -> conducted with male American students from 1950s and other countries e.g. England conform less -> cultural relativism of USA
• Imposed etic -> task devised in one culture and used in other cultures but would be more suitable to study reasons for conformity for individual cultures (adopt an emic approach)
• Reflective of behaviour in individualistic cultures
• Task may not be valid as behaviour may be diff in diff cultures so issues with operationalisation of variables

Question 16

Discussion: indigenous psychologists

Answer 16

• Encourage indigenous psychologists that develop theories in diff countries
• Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in Africa and that psychological theories concerning such people must be African-centred and must express African values.
• It suggests that values and cultures if Europeans at worst devalue non-European people, an at best are irrelevant to the life and culture of people of African descent

Question 17

Discussion: the emic-etic distinction

Answer 17

-The emic approach is one that only tends to show the behaviour of one specific culture
- The etic approach looks for universal behaviour, however may be bias
- The way to counteract this is using indigenous psychologists in each cultural setting, for each theory/ research -> this way true understanding of culture can be truthfully given

Question 18

Discussion: bias in research methods

Answer 18

• Cultural bias can be dealt with by using samples from different cultures
• Sears found that 82% of research studies used undergraduates as ppts and 51% were psychology students
• This shows that a considerable amount of psychology research is based on middle class, academic young adults who are often male
• Therefore, a lot of research is not only under representative globally but also within the western culture.

Question 19

Discussion: consequences of culture bias

Answer 19

• The US army IQ test used before WW1 found European immigrants fell below white Americans in IQ
• African Americans were the lowest in terms of IQ
• This led to certain attitudes being formed about certain groups - led to immense stereotyping

Question 20

Discussion: the worldwide psychology society

Answer 20

• In the last 50 yrs, psychologists travel a lot more and therefore hold a greater understanding of other cultures
• There are now even international conferences to exchange research findings
• This should reduce ethnocentrism and enable an understanding of cultural relativism in order to identify the real diffs

Question 21

Discussion: challenging implicit assumptions

Answer 21

• By conducting cross cultural research, it enables the conclusions that psychologists draw are more likely to have higher validity if they include recognition of the role of culture bringing them about.