Culture Bias

Question 1

What is Culture Bias?

Answer 1

The tendency to judge people in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions, and the use of methods that are biased to one culture and are not applicable to other cultures, leading to gender stereotypes

Question 2

What is WEIRD?

Answer 2

• Henrich et at (2010) coined the term ‘WEIRD’: Western Educated people from Industrialised Rich Democracies, these people are most likely to be studied by psychologists
• Review found 68% of research subjects for psychological research were from the United Subjects, and 96% from Western Industrialised nations

Question 3

What is Alpha bias?

Answer 3

When the differences between cultures are exaggerated

Question 4

What is Beta bias?

Answer 4

When the differences between cultures are ignored

Question 5

Give an example of Alpha bias

Answer 5

• The idea of collectivist and individualistic cultures

Question 6

Why is individualism/collectivism biased?

Answer 6

• Believing people behave differently based on what kind of culture they are from
• Takona and Osaka (1999) found 14 out of 15 studies that compared cultures in US and Japan did not support the view about cultural differences in conformity.
• Suggesting the distinction doesn’t exist anymore

Question 7

Give an example of beta bias

Answer 7

IQ Tests

Question 8

Why are IQ tests beta biased?

Answer 8

• IQ tests are an ‘imposed etic’
• Developed by Western psychologist and applied to many different cultures
• Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual, whereas non-Western cultures see intelligence as a functional relationship
• Results in non-Western people being perceived as unintelligent

Question 9

What is an ‘emic’ approach?

Answer 9

An approach that emphasises the uniqueness of every culture

Question 10

What is an ‘etic’ approach?

Answer 10

An approach that seeks to universalise behaviour

Question 11

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 11

Seeing the world from one’s own cultural perspective and believing this is accurate

Question 12

Give an example of ethnocentrism

Answer 12

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, developed in America. Cross-cultural research found other cultures show an ‘unhealthy’ attachment type, but this may be normal/healthy in certain cultures

Question 13

Why is the Strange Situation ethnocentric?

Answer 13

• Developed in America and generalised to all cultures
• Cross-cultural research found other cultures show an ‘unhealthy’ attachment types, but this may be a norm or healthy in certain cultures

Question 14

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

Give an example of cultural relativism

Answer 15

• Intelligence
• Defining mental disorder
• Gender differences in aggression

Question 16

Give an evaluation point of culture bias

Answer 16

• Cultural bias in research methods/textbooks
• Consequences of cultural bias
• Indigenous psychologies

Question 17

Explain cultural bias in research methods/textbooks

Answer 17

• Smith and Bond surveys research in one European textbook on social psychology, and found 66% of the studies were from America, 32% from Europe and 2% from the rest of the world
• Institutionalised culture bias, as students would be learning ‘universal’ behaviours that were demonstrated only in certain cultures

Question 18

Explain the consequences of cultural bias

Answer 18

• Cultural bias can lead to stereotypes
• US army IQ tests, dominant to white Americans, found African Americans had the lowest IQ
• Theories that portray cultures in a certain way can lead to discrimination

Question 19

Explain indigenous psychologies

Answer 19

• Ethnocentrism can be countered using indigenous psychologies, theories drawing explicit on the particular experiences of people in different cultural contexts
• Emergence of Afrocentrism has led to theories applicable to African cultures and African-oriented cultures