Cultural Bias Flashcards
What is cultural bias
The tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions
What is alpha bias (cultural bias)
It refers to the theories that devalues differences between cultural groups
What is an example of alpha bias (cultural bias)
The difference that is made between individualistic and collectivist cultures
What is beta bias (cultural bias )
Refers to the theories that minimises cultural differences or use only samples from one culture and apply the theory to all
What is an example of beta bias (cultural bias )
IQ testing devised in western societies but across all cultures
E.g ainsworth(America )
Schaffer and Emerson (Glasgow)
What is the cultural bias concern ?
There are so many differences between humans and their cultures it is hard to take account of them all
The concern and the focus therefore is the distorted view psychologists have because of their own cultural affiliations and how they apply these to others
For this bias is said to impact their theories and studies
Examples of cultural bias
Ainsworth
Emerson and Schaffer
As h study
Romanian orphans
Loftus and palmer -American students
What is the two types of cultural bias
Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism
What is ethnocentrism
It is seeing things from the POV of ourselves and our social group
Evaluating other groups of people using the standards and customs of one’s own culture
What is alpha bias within ethnocentrism
As one culture is considered to be different and better,the consequence of this is that the other culture is devalued
What is an example of alpha bias within ethnocentrism
In collectivist cultures dependence tends to be highly valued
What is beta bias within ethnocentrism
Is when psychologist believe that their world view is the only view
What is an example of beta bias within ethnocentrism
Using America’s IQ tests all over the world making it universal
What is culture relativism
Is the view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates from
What is alpha bias within culture relativism
Is where the assumptions of real differences leads psychologists to overlook universals
What is example of alpha bias within culture relativism
Men in all cultures where more aggressive than women -universal however the research thought that’s there was a significant difference due to culture
What is beta bias within culture relativism
Is assuming the same rules apply universally which may lead it to diagnose some people as being mentally ill,but that diagnosis is relative to culture
Examples of ethnocentrism
Supporting your own team
Media
Curriculums
Cultural bias evaluation weakness
P:bias in research methods
E:evidence for this is that researchers found in an European textbook on social psychology that 66% of studies were American ,32% were European and 2% came from the rest of the world
E:this suggests that the psychology findings are not only unrepresentative on a global scale but also within western culture and there is a pressing need for more research with samples from different cultural groups as the research shows alpha bias therefore it can’t be generalised to the wider population and lacks representation
Cultural bias evaluation strength
P:cross cultural research in the worldwide psychology community
E:for example, discussing and exchanging ideas paved a way for how David Buss found his researchers in 37 different cultures
E:this shows how exchange in ideas should reduce ethnocentrism in psychology enabling an understanding of cultural relativism and this means that real differences are identified and valued providing it with RWA
