Cultural Bias Flashcards
What is meant by culture?
The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people.
What is meant by cultural bias?
The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements.
What is meant by cultural relativism?
The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be
judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.
What is an example of cultural relativism?
Milgram’s study into obedience was originally conducted
using 40 male American participants, but then also replicated using Spanish students
(Miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in Spanish students) and Australian
students (where only 16% of female participants continued to the highest voltage setting,
as shown by Kilham and Mann). This suggests that Milgram’s original results were
specifically bound to American cultures.
What is meant by ethnocentrism?
This occurs when a researcher assumes that their own culturally specific practices or ideas are ‘natural’ or right, and when other cultures differ from this they are seen as ‘primitive, degenerate etc’
alpha bias in cross cultural research
With regards to culture refers to the assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. An example is the distinction that is often
made between individualistic and collectivist cultures. We would expect individualistic
cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated towards group norms and value
the needs of the group over the individual. For example, Takano and Osaka reviewed 15
studies that compared the US and Japan in terms of collectivist / individualist and found that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in
conformity. This suggests that there is less of a collectivist/individualist divide in an
increasingly global world.
beta bias in cross cultural research
Refers to theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences, They do this by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same
theories for different cultural groups. An example is IQ tests. Psychologists use IQ tests to
study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures. However this may not always be the case. Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual whereas in a collectivist culture
intelligence is a functional relationship depending on shared information between the
individual and society. The result is that non-western people may appear less intelligent. Such tests are described as taking an “imposed etic” approach, where a test is made in one group and then imposed on another. This approach studies behaviours outside a given group
what is meant by indigenous psychologies?
A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories in different countries.
what is an example of ethnocentrism?
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety. Therefore, German mothers, whose children showed little separation and stranger anxiety (thus being insecure-avoidant according to Ainsworth’s system), were deemed as cold and rejecting.
What is meant by an emic approach?
suggests every culture is unique, however findings are then only significant for this culture
What is meant by an etic approach?
suggests there is universality between cultures - one way to do this whilst still avoiding cultural bias is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting.
Strengths of cultural bias
Heightened awareness of cultural diversity has led to the development of indigenous psychologies e.g afrocentrism, This is important as it has led to the emergence of theories that are more relevant to the lives and cultures of people not only in Africa, but also others worldwide
Has also been some progress in the field of diagnosing mental disorders. Early versions of DSM ignored mental disorders found mainly or exclusively in non American cultures. DSM-IV in 1994 acknowledged this and included a short appendix on culture bound syndromes in other parts of the world
Limitations of cultural bias
Consequences of cultural bias: The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ. This data has a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, leading to stereotyping and discrimination.
Bias in research methods: Smith and Bond surveyed research in one European textbook on social psychology and found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. A considerable amount of psychology is based on middle
class academic young adults who are males. This suggests that there is almost an institutionalised cultural bias in psychology, as students would be learning about
‘universal’ behaviours that were demonstrated only in certain cultures.
Not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias: Although there may be differences in rates of obedience (Milgram) and conformity (Asch) between collectivist/Eastern and
individualist/Western cultures, universal behaviours still exist. For example, Ekman et al.
demonstrated that facial expressions for anger, guilt and disgust were universally
recognised across all cultures. In terms of attachment, interactional synchrony and reciprocity are universal features of infant-caregiver interactions. Therefore, this suggests that to fully understand behaviour, we must look at both universal and culture-bound examples.
