cultural bias Flashcards
Americans and students overrepresented in research
A review found that 68% of research participants came from the United States, and 96% from industrialised nations (Henrich et al 2010). Another review found that 80% of research participants were undergraduates studying psychology (Arnett 2008).
WEIRD people set standards
What we know about human behaviour has a strong cultural bias. Henrich et al coined the term WEIRD to describe the group of people most likely to be studied by psychologists - Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised, Rich Democracies. If the norm or standard for a particular behaviour is set by WEIRD people, then the behaviour of people from non-Western, less educated, agricultural and poorer cultures are inevitably seen as abnormal, inferior or unusual.
Ethnocentrism?
A form of cultural bias. In psychological research this may be communicated through a view that any behaviour that does not conform to a European/American standard is somehow deficient or underdeveloped.
Example of ethnocentrism is the strange situation?
Ainsworth and Bell’s (1970) research on attachment type reflected the norms of US culture. They suggested that ideal (secure) attachment was defined as a baby showing moderate distress when left alone by the mother figure. This has led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries which deviated from US norm e.g. Japanese babies rarely left on their own, more likely to be classed as insecurely attached as they showed distress on separation (Takahashi 1986).
Cultural relativism helps to avoid cultural bias
The facts that psychologists discover may only make sense from the perspective of the culture within which they were discovered. Being able to recognise this is one way of avoiding cultural bias.
Universality versus cultural relativism (etic and emic approaches)
Berry (1969) argues that:
An etic approach looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and identifies behaviours that are universal.
An emic approach functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.
Ainsworth and Bell’s research illustrates an imposed etic - they studied behaviours inside a single culture (America) and they assumed their ideal attachment type could be applied universally.
A03: One strength is the emergence of cultural psychology.
Cultural psychology is the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience (Cohen 2017). It is an emerging field that takes an emic approach. Research is conducted from inside a culture, often alongside local researchers using culturally-based techniques. Fewer cultures are considered when comparing differences (usually just two).
This suggests that modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it.
A03: One limitation is ethnic stereotyping.
Gould (1981) explained how the first intelligence tests led to eugenic social policies in America. During WW1 psychologists gave IQ tests to 1.75 million army recruits. Many test items were ethnocentric (e.g. name US presidents) so recruits from south-eastern Europe and African-Americans scored lowest and were deemed genetically inferior.
This illustrates how cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination towards ethnic and cultural groups.
A03: Another limitation is many classic studies are culturally-biassed.
Both Asch’s and Milgram’s original studies were conducted with white middle class US participants. Replications of these studies in different countries produced rather different results. Asch-type experiments in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of conformity than the original studies in the US, an individualist culture (e.g. Smith and Bond 1993).
This suggests our understanding of topics such as social influence should only be applied to individualist cultures.
A03 (counter): However, individualism-collectivism distinction may no longer apply due to increasing global media.
For example, Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14 of 15 studies comparing the US and Japan found no evidence of individualist versus collectivist differences.
This suggests that cultural bias in research may be less of an issue in more recent psychological research
