Cultural bias

Question 1

What does culture refer to?

Answer 1

• the set of customs, social roles, behavioural norms, and moral values that are shared by a group of people.

Question 2

As psychology developed in the west, researchers would typically study people who were available - people from their own cultural background. What are possible reasons for cultural bias in past research?

Answer 2

1) Researchers assumed that people from western cultures are essentially the same as people in other cultures,
2) It may have been assumed that non-western cultures were more ‘primitive’ and less worthy of study,
3) Researchers who wanted to do cross-cultural research couldn’t because they lacked time and resources.

Question 3

Berry (1969) identified two main approaches to research that could lead to cultural bias, what were they?

Answer 3

1) Etic research - research from a specific culture which is then applied to other cultures to find universal laws, giving the studies universality. It is possible that there are lots of these; all humans have basically the same physiology and many behaviours are found in all cultures. However, studies have to take sample of the population; it is difficult to generalise the findings to all cultures. If researchers try to do this, they could be guilty of bias in the form of an imposed etic.
2) Emic research - research based on a specific culture that is used to understand that culture from within. It isn’t generalised to other cultures, instead it studies variations to behaviour between groups of people. This avoids the problem of cultural bias through an imposed etic. Bias may still occur by exaggerating differences between different cultural groups, and neglecting to look at the differences within the cultural groups.

Question 4

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 4

• Where our own culture is taken as the norm that we judge other cultures against,
• Centred around the one culture it is based in.

Question 5

Cochrane and Sashidharan (1995), findings

Answer 5

• Found that people of African-Caribbean origin in the UK were up to seven times more likely than white patients to be diagnosed with schizophrenia,
• The rate of schizophrenia in the Caribbean is no higher than in the UK; seems that African-Caribbeans don’t have genetic predisposition towards it.

Question 6

Littlewood and Lipsedge (1989), findings

Answer 6

• Found that African-Caribbean patients were often prescribed stronger doses of medication than white patients, even though their symptoms were the same,
• Suggests that their symptoms were interpreted as being more severe than they actually are.

Question 7

What are two problems with cross-cultural research?

Answer 7

1) Even with a translator, it can be difficult to interpret what participants say and do - some beliefs and customs may be difficult for people from other cultures to understand; findings can be misinterpreted and research can be ethnocentric,
2) Cross-cultural replications of studies are difficult to do. Smith and Bond (1988) argued that perfect cross-cultural replications are impossible because procedures will have different meanings to people in different cultures. Means that studies can lack validity; might not be testing what they intended to.

Question 8

What are three methods of reducing cultural bias?

Answer 8

1) Should recognise cultural relativism; accepting that there is no universal standards for behaviour,
2) Samples should be representative of the groups you want to generalise results to,
3) Berry (1969) recommended conducting research in meaningful contexts and using local researchers who are part of the culture being studied.