Cultural bias Flashcards
What is universality?
The extent to which theories, models and concepts can represent universal human behaviour.
What is cultural bias?
When cultural differences are ignored and all phenomena is viewed from one culture.
What is ethnocentrism?
The belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group. In psychological research this may be communicated through a view that behaviours that do not conform to the Western model are underdeveloped.
What is an example of ethnocentrism?
Ainsworth’s Strange situation is an example as it represents only the American views and she suggested that secure attachment types were better and that German mothers were rejecting for encouraging independence.
What is cultural relativism?
The idea that norms can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.
What is an etic approach?
An etic approach looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe behaviours that are universal.
What is an emic approach?
It functions from within certain cultures and identifies behaviours specific to that culture.
What is imposed etic?
When behaviour is studied within a culture and assuming this is universal behaviour. For example, Ainsworth looked at attachment in America and assumed the same findings would be found universally.
What are the evaluations of culture bias in research?
Individualism and collectivism-Differences between them has caused issues in research but more recently there has been no evidence of differences between them.
Cultural relativism vs universality-There is both universal behaviour and culturally relative behaviour and they must both be studied.
Unfamiliarity with research-Demand characteristics may be present when studying in western cultures but in other cultures they may be unaware of the research and therefore testing may not be equal in all countries.
Operationalisation of variables-Interactions across cultures may be interpreted differently so variables must be described carefully.
Challenging assumptions-A benefit of cross cultural research is that it can challenge expectations and draw conclusions that are very valuable.
