Cultural bias

Question 1

1Cultural bias
2Ethnocentrism
3Cultural relativism

Answer 1

1-interpret or phenomena through the lens of one’s own culture-ignore cultural differences
2-judging other cultures by standards of one’s own. superiority leading to prejudice
3-norms and values can only be understood within specific social and cultural context

Question 2

Cultural relativism

Answer 2

John Berry-Etic-researcher describes the ppl from the outside. Emic-research investigates how people think within the culture.
Ainsworth and Bell -research= imposed etic-Studies in one culture-assumes it’s universal
Berry-Agrees with imposed etic. Things they discover may only make sense to the culture they were discovered

Question 3

Ethnocentrism

Answer 3

Ainsworth and Bell
- Strange situation-only reflects western culture
-missinterpretations in other countries where they deviate from American norms
-Takahashi-Japanese infants insecure attached-rarely separated from mothers

Question 4

Universality and bias

Answer 4

Joseph Henrich- 68% of participants came from US. 96% from industrialised nations
Arnett-80% of participants were undergraduates studying psychology. Psychologists Claim to have discovered facts about universal human behaviour
Henrich -coined weird to describe group likely to be researched by psychologists. if standard for behaviour is set by weird people it’s inevitably seen as abnormal

Question 5

Evaluation Relativism versus universality

Answer 5

Cross cultural research may challenge dominant individualist ways of thinking
Seeing our concepts are not hardwired may provide better understanding of human nature
Should not be assumed all psychology is culturally relative
Eckman -basic facial expressions are the same all over the world
Some research is universal

Question 6

Evaluation Classic studies

Answer 6

Asch and milgrams study is culturally biased-only US participants
Replication in different countries produced different results(collectivist= higher conformity)
Social influence research should only be applied to individualist cultures

Question 7

Evaluation counterpoint

Answer 7

Increased media globalisation = Individualist-collectivist distinction no longer applies
Takano and Osaka -14 out of 15 studies found no evidence for this when compared to the US to Japan
Distinction is lazy and simplistic
Cultural bias is less of an issue in more recent studies

Question 8

Evaluation Cultural psychology

Answer 8

Cohen-study of how people shape and are shaped by their culture
Conduct research from inside of culture
Strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking emic approach
Cross cultural focuses on 2 instead of a large scale

Question 9

Evaluation Ethnic stereotyping

Answer 9

Cultural bias led to prejudiced against groups of people
Gould-The first intelligence test was ethnocentric eg. Knowing the US president
Ethnic minorities were deemed mentally unfit and feeble minded in comparison to white
Illustrates how cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination