component 3- controversies

Question 1

Introduce the controversy, cultural bias

Answer 1

• A culture is defined as the rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of society. Culture can constarin the way we see, feel and think
• cultural bias occurs when people of one culture make assumptions about the behaviour of people from another culture based on their own cultural norms and practices
• much of traditional psychological research conducted on western cultures, which is not surpring as high percentage of world’s researchers and participants in research are from western cultures. This means that although most psychological theories and research techniques assumed ro be universal, they have a basis in a western world view, so when research applied to other cultures, it is likely to have a culture bias.

Question 2

What is a cross cultural study?

Answer 2

• conducted by psychologists to see whether cultural practices affect behaviour
• kind of natural experiment where the IV is the cultural practice and the DV is the behaviour
• enables researchers to see if variations in the levels of a certain behaviour (e.g. aggression) are due to different cultural practices (e.g. different culturally determined child-rearing techniques)

Question 3

What are the advantages of cross cultural studies?

Answer 3

• enable us to see whether behaviours are innate, as if a behaviour is the same in all cultures, this suggests behaviour is innate. David Buss (1989) looked at relationships in 36 countries and found the same mate preferences (men look for youth and good looks, while women look for resources, ambition and industriousness)

Question 4

What are the disadvantages of cross cultural studies?

Answer 4

• western researchers conducting research in a different culture may fail to understand local practices and meanings and so misinterpret a participant’s understanding
• In study by Buss (1989), participants were interviewed in each of the 36 countries by an indegenous researcher. Three bilingual speakers were employed, one translated the original questionnaire from english into their native language, the second translated the answers into english and the third resolved any discrepancies.
• This may resolve the disadvantage of researchers failing to understand different cultures and misinterpreting the results obtained
• Secondly, cross cultural studies may use tests of procedures developed in US and are not valid in other cultures. The use of psychological tests or techniques developed in one culture and used in another called an imposed etic.
• thirdly, the group of participants may not be representative of that culture, but still generalisations are made about the whole culture or even the whole country.
• Lastly, observer bias may be present, where the observer’s expectations alter what they ‘see’. investigator effects may be present, where participants try to guess what answers researcher wants and provides those answers.

Question 5

How is Difference confused with bias?

cultural bias

Answer 5

• easy to confuse difference with bias
• Many studies have founddifferences between human cultural groups. Myers and Diener (1995) conducted a cross cultural comparison that indicated cultural factors may influence subjective wellbing (SWB). They noted more people in individualist (people more concerned with individual needs) cultures report SWB than collectivist (people focus on the needs of the group) cultures.
• these differences are a fact and cultural bias is not concerned with these differences, but is concerned with the distorted view that psychologists have because of their own cultural beliefs and how the bias affects their theories and studies
• BUT finding a difference in SBW may be due to cultural bias e.g. if SWB is measured with a questionnaire designed by western researchers (an imposed etic) then the questions are probably based on western (individualist) assumptions of what constitutes SWB. This may mean that people from collectivist cultures may appear different, but the two cultures may not be different in terms of SWB, BUT the methods used to test SWB in people are biased so some cultural groups appear different.

Question 6

What can psychologists do to eliminate cultural bias?

Answer 6

• more non western countries are developing their involvement in psychological theory and research, so cultural bias is slowly being addressed
• Indigenous psychologies present alternatuve views of human behaviour

Question 7

Provide examples of cross cultural studies

Answer 7

• Myers and Diener’s (1995) research involved a cross cultural comparison that indicated that cultural factors may influence SWB. Research cited by researchers found that 10% people in portugal reported they were happy compared to 40% in Netherlands
• Kohlberg’s (1968) study of moral development using moral dilemmas found that children in mexico and Taiwan were the same in children in the US (kohlberg from US), but development was slightly slower. The hypothetical dilemmas may not have made the same sense to other cultural groups (example of using an imposed etic and culturally biased research)

Question 8

What is Ethnocentrism?

Answer 8

• the use of our own ethnic/cultural group as a basis for judgements about other groups.
• it is a fairly natural human tendency (makes people feel better about themselves, as if people overestimate the value of the group they belong to snf underestimate the value of all other groups, self esteem increased.
• ethnocentrism is a psychological inevitability
• BUT needs to be minimised when conducting objective research

Question 9

What is Alpha bias?

Ethnocentrism

Rachel Hare-MUstin and Jeanne Maracek (1988) suggest there are 2 ways theories can be biased: alpha and beta bias

Answer 9

• the assumption there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. In terms of ethnocentrism, this is the belief that one’s own culture is considered to be different and better, so other cultures and their practices are devalued

Question 10

What is beta bias?

ethnocentrism

Answer 10

refers to theories that ignore or minimise cultural differences. Ethnocentrism may lead to a beta bias if tests are assumed to have the same meaning in all cultures

Question 11

What is Cultural Relativism?

Answer 11

• opposite of ethnocentrism
• the idea that all cultures are equally worthy or respect and that in studying another culture, we need to try to understand the way that a particular culture sees the world
• can result in bias: alpha and beta

Question 12

How can cultural relativism result in alpha bias?

Answer 12

can lead to an alpha bias where the assumption of real differences leads psychologists to overlook universals

Question 13

How can cultural relativism lead to a beta bias?

cultural bias

Answer 13

• cultural relativism often discussed in the context of defining mental disorder e.g. hearing voices regarded as an unusual behaviour in the western world and taken as a symptom of schizophrenia
• BUT in some cultures hearing voices may be normal and people who report these symptoms may be misdiagnosed by western psychiatrists as schizophrenic, so the assumption of no difference causes a problem