8.2.3 use of cross-cultural research

Question 1

cross cultural research in drug use - strengths

Answer 1

Reliability: likely to be reliable as procedures are standardised and controlled so that they can be replicated in different cultures.

Validity: If the procedure is replicable then the only variable which is changing is the culture , therefore accurate cause and effect conclusions about the extent to which nature and nurture play a role in people’s experiences of addiction.

Question 2

cross-cultural research - nature-nurture debate

health psych

Answer 2

Cross-cultural research enables evidence to be gathered to explore whether substance use and addiction is due a person’s predisposed characteristics (nature) or their environment (nurture).

Question 3

cross-cultural - how is drug taking due to nature or nurture?

Answer 3

Drug taking behaviour is universal (symptoms, tolerance, withdrawal) so this suggests the effect drugs have on the body and addiction is due to nature but the types drugs people take differs across cultures, therefore drug choice is due to nurture.

Question 4

cross cultural research in drug use - weaknesses

Answer 4

Cultural bias: Using a standardised procedure which has been developed in one culture may be biased towards that culture (ethnocentric) and may lose consistency if translated.

Generalisability: Pps. used in a cross-cultural study won’t necessarily represent the culture accurately (population validity), therefore the results may not be generalisable to the whole culture.