Culture Bias

Question 1

Culture Bias

Answer 1

The act of ignoring cultural differences and interpreting data through the lens of one’s own culture.

Question 2

Different Forms of Culture Bias

Answer 2

1. By theories developed in one culture which are then applied inappropriately to others
2. Through biased research methods which only use participants that are not representative of all cultures.

Question 3

Ethnocentrism

Answer 3

Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture.

In its extreme form, it is a belief in the superiority of one’s own culture.

This may be communicated through a view that any behaviours which do not conform to the usually Western society.

Question 4

Cultural Relativism

Answer 4

The view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates.

Question 5

Etic Constructs

Answer 5

Looks at behaviour from outside a culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal

Question 6

Emic Constructs

Answer 6

Functions from within cultures and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture

Question 7

Imposed Etic

Answer 7

Where a culture-specific idea is wrongly imposed on another culture

Question 8

Universality and Bias

Answer 8

Critics argue mainstream psychology generally ignored culture as an important influence on human behaviour

Psychologists have assumed that findings derived from studies carried out in individualist cultures can straightforwardly applied to all the over world

Question 9

A03 - Individualistic & Collectivist Cultures

Answer 9

Individualistic cultures: Western countries such as America (said to value personal freedom)

Collectivist cultures: South-East Asian countries such as India and China (said to place more emphasis on interdependence)

Study : Takano and Osaka (1999) – 14 out of 15 studies that compared the USA and Japan found no evidence of the distinction between individualism and collectivism

However, critics have stated that in this age of global communication and increased interconnectedness, such a simplistic difference between cultures no longer applies

Question 10

A03 - Cultural Relativism vs Universality

Answer 10

It should not be assumed that all of psychology is culturally relative and that there is no such thing as universal human behavior

Study : Ekman showed photographs of faces to people in 20 different western cultures and 11 different isolated groups in Africa. Over 90% of respondents in both groups could identify anger, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust and happiness

In terms of attachment, interactional synchrony are universal features of infant-caregiver interactions. Therefore, this suggests that to fully understand behaviour, we must look at both universal and culture-bound

Question 11

A03 - Unfamiliarity with Research Tradition

Answer 11

P: An issue with cultural bias is that different cultures have a different understanding of research.

E: For example, in Western culture the participants’ familiarity with the general aims and objectives of scientific enquiry is assumed. However, the same knowledge and ‘faith’ in scientific testing may not extend to cultures that do not have the same historical experience of research.

E: For this reason, demand characteristics (always an issue within any investigation) may be exaggerated when working with members of the local population (Bond and Smith 1996) – This may have an adverse effect on the validity of the research.

L: Therefore, there may be methodical issues when conducting research in one particular culture.