Cultural bias

Question 1

what does WEIRD stand for?

Answer 1

Western
Educated
Industrialised
Democracies

Question 2

what is ethnocentricsm

Answer 2

the process of judging other peoples cultures based on the standard of one’s own culture. A kind of superiority of someone’s own country.

Question 3

give an example of ethnocenticm

Answer 3

Ainsworth’s stragne situation which led to cultural differences such as Japanese children being described as ‘abnorma’ for having different attachment types.

Question 4

what is cultural relitivism

Answer 4

the idea that norms, values, ethics and moral standards can only be understood and meaningful within specific cultural and social contexts

Question 5

what is the difference between an etic and emic approach

Answer 5

• an etic approach looks at behaviour outside a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
• an emic approach functions from within a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.

Question 6

Is Ainsworth and Bell’s research an example of imposed etic or imposed emic

Answer 6

imposed etic because they studies behaviour inside American culture and assumed the findings could be universally applied.

Question 7

what is a strength to cultural bias

Answer 7

can highlight inequalities within research processes and societies. Can help challenge ethnocentrism

Question 8

what are weaknesses to cultural bias

Answer 8

• the categories ‘individualistic’ and ‘collectivist’ may be too broad and in turn present a generalised, homogenous view of culture, ignoring finer details in nuances.
• some cross-cultural research have problems, e.g. self report methods may have to be adapted per culture. Operational variables may have different meanings in different cultures.