Cultural and Gender differences

Question 1

Culture:

What is the issue of culture in psychology + give example

Answer 1

Psychologists must take cultural differences into consideration to avoid baises.

Cultural groups do not share the same views on mental health, they may describe their symptoms differently which leads to different diagnosis

Question 2

Culture:

What type of culture does psychological research mostly use

Answer 2

Western, educated and democratic cultures

Question 3

Culture:

Define universality

Answer 3

Idea that suggests findings of a study can be generalised to all people

Question 4

Culture:

What are the 2 different cultural biases in psychological research, and define each of them

Answer 4

Etic and Emic approach

Etic approach - culture is studied from an outsider perspective in an attempt to find similarities

Emic approach - culture is investigated from within the cultural groups

Question 5

Gender:

What are the assumption about gender differences in psychology

Answer 5

Gender differences in psychology could be due to biology or learning differences

Deciding which one it is has important implications to how society treats men and women: people expect men to be more ‘naturally’ aggressive while women are more ‘naturally’ caring

Question 6

Gender:

‘Universality’ in gender differences + example of a study that doesn’t show gender differences

Answer 6

If there are differences in gender, then conclusions from samples of just one gender cannot be generalised to all

Sherif’s study used only boys, if gender differences do exist his results of prejudice of outgroup cannot be generalised to females, as difference would not be apparant

Question 7

Gender:

Alpha bias vs beta bias

Answer 7

Alpha bias - overestimates gender differences (for example research into aggression suggests males are more aggressive than females)

Beta bias - underestimates or ignores gender differences

Question 8

Gender:

Androcentricism definition

Answer 8

Being centered around male, where normal behaviour is judged by a male standard

Question 9

Culture and gender:

Social approach

Answer 9

• Sherif’s study highlights both gender and cultural differences

Gender - participants were all boys, social and biological differences may have primed to boys to be more competitive and prejudiced than girls would have.

Cultural - All participants were from america, which is an individualistic society, they value competition. Results may have been different if participants came from a collectivist culture

This shows that their conclusion, levels of prejudice are affected by competition and cooperation may not be universal

• The distinction made between collectivist and individualistic cultures made it easier to research cultural differences

Question 10

Culture and gender:

Cognitive approach

Answer 10

• Sebastian and Hernandez-Gil highlighted cultural differences in psychological research

Digit span of Spanish participants were shorter then English participants. This was explained by the length of the spanish words - since they are longer, they are more likely to decay.

• Schema theory highlights cultural differences

Our schemas are influenced by our knowledge and experiences, this can vary from culture to culture. Example: different cultures will have different schemas on greeting people, in Sweden the norm is to shake everyones hands, while in Japan it is to bow.