Cultral Bias 20/25

Question 1

Intro

Answer 1

• Much of traditional psychological research has been carried out on the typical western ideas and viewpoints
• however researchers have tried to address this bias by carrying out cross cultural research using different approaches
• this essay with discuss the extent to which culture remains an issue in psychology. 

Question 2

Paragraph 1- individualistic vs collectivist

Answer 2

S- cultural bias is an issue in psychological research in terms of failing to distinguish between individualistic and collectivist cultures
E- an example of research that may be culturally biased for failing to distinguish between these two groups is myers and Dieners.
- although they report to have found genuine differences between individualistic and collective this cultures in subjective well-being, this difference could actually be due to bias
E- this is because subjective well-being was measured using a questionnaire designed by western researchers therefore producing an imposed etic
W- this may demonstrate cultural bias in psychological research because although people from collectivist cultures may appear to have differences to those in individualistic cultures, this could simply be an alpha bias
- people in collective cultures may be equally happy but don’t express it as happiness as their happiness comes from this success others rather than themselves

Question 3

Paragraph 2 -

Answer 3

S- it could be argued that the historical and social context contributes to culture bias in psychological research
- most psychological research has historically and is still carried out on America’s participants and by American researches
E- for example rosenweig found that 64% of the world psychologists are American furthermore Heinrich et al suggested that most psychological research is conducted using WEIRD samples (westernised educated people from industrialised rich Democracies)