Culture Flashcards
Define culture
The learned set of behaviours, values, and norms of a particular group
What is cultural bias?
The tendency to ignoew cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of ones own culture
What is ethnocentrism?
Occurs when a researcher takes the views or behaviour of their own culture as normal, and if other cultures differ from this, views them as abnormal or deficient
What are three studies that have an ethnocentric cultural bias?
- Goddard (1913) researched intelligence of immigrants arriving in NYC, and concluded that the majority of Russians. Jews, Hungarians, and Italians were feeble-mnded. Goddard ignored obvious fact that most of the immigrants had very limited knowledge of the English language.
- Luria (1969) gave Russian rural-dwellers an IQ test (which is the odd one out: hammer, axe, log, saw?) and found that all gave the wrong answer and said hammer, but that does not mean that they have a low IQ, it was just looked at through a different cultural lens.
- Kohlberg’s theory of moral development was based on a hierarchy of developmental stages and strongly influenced by Western individualism and a tradition of abstract moral reasoning. This means that other cultures score much lower on moral development but they just have different values.
How can ethnocentrism be fixed?
Cultural relativism: the idea that norms, values, ethics, and moral standards are only meaningful when understood within specific cultural contexts. This allows researchers to avoid ethnocentrism
Who came up with emic-etic distinction?
Berry (1969)
What are etics?
Universal human behaviours that do not change based on culture
What is an imposed etic?
When a culturally specific idea is imposed on another culture
In psychological research, what is the problem with an etic approach?
An etic approach ignores the cultural context and interprets behaviour from a different cultural perspective
What is an emic approach?
The researcher attempts to understand the culture they are studying, learning their rules and values
Has psychological research in general leaned more towards an etic or emic approach? Give an example of a study that shows this approach.
Psychology has been guilty of an etic approach, with many Western researchers interpreting data from other cultures through their own culturally specific system. E.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation where she studied behaviour in America and argued that it applied to the rest of the world, regardless of culture.
What is alpha culture bias?
Refers to theories that argue that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups, but may over-eaggerate these differences
What is beta culture bias?
Occurs in studies that ignore or minimise the differences between cultures. E.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation
What are the two main groups of culture?
Individualism: value independence, personal success, and recognition. Individuality is encouraged and this is largely in wester countries such as USA and UK.
Collectivism: value the community over the individual with people working together for the common interest. Found in Japan, China, and Latin America.
What did Takano and Osaka find about traditional cultural distinctions?
Found that 14/15 studies comparing USA to Japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism. This is due to global communication and interconnectedness, supporting universality.
