culture bias Flashcards
what is culture bias?
the tendency to judge all people against your own cultural judgement
- ignores cultural differences
what is ethnocentrism?
seeing the world from only one cultural perspective and believing this perspective is ‘normal’ and correct
what is cultural relativism?
insists that behaviour can only be properly understood if the cultural context is taken into context
what are the 2 approaches to dealing with bias?
etic and emic constructs
what is an emic construct?
psychologists focus on 1 culture in order to examine culture-specific behaviours
- behaviour within culture
what is an etic construct?
research is done across cultures to examine what aspects of behaviour may be universal
- behaviour outside culture
give an example of emic research
bartlett: found that swazi herds men knew every detail about their cattle, as they’re culturally important and represent wealth in their culture
give an example of etic research
berry: replicated asch’s study in sierra leone with temne people and in canada with inuit people
temne people conformed, inuit people didn’t
- shows that conformity isn’t universal
how is ainsworth’s strange situation an example of ethnocentrism?
critisised for judging attachments against western standards
- grossman and grossman: german infants are more insecurely attached due to different child rearing practices
how is ainsworth’s strange situation an example of imposed etic?
a theory has been developed in one culture (US) and then imposed on another
give an example of culture bias in diagnosis of disorders
afro-carribean immigrants are 7 times more likely to be diagnosed with mental health disorders
- certain things like hearing voices is a spiritual concept in their culture
we use the dsm to categorise depression globally, but in china and japan there is no concept of depression
give an example of culture bias in psychological research
64% of the worlds 56,000 published psychological researchers are from the US
96% of psychological research studies are carried out in north america
how are ‘definitions of abnormality’ culturally bias?
if behaviour that is seen as the ‘norm’ is only derived from one cultural viewpoint, then any behaviour that is culturally different is seen as ‘abnormal’
how is universality culturally bias?
there is a wrong assumption that findings obtained from western research can be applied universally
e.g milgram and asch’s research showed very different results when replicated in other parts of the world
give 3 evaluation points for culture bias
- real world implications (US army)
- individualistic vs collectivist
- progress in diagnosis of mental disorders
evaluation: real world implications
ID: culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects
Q: this is due to emphasising and validating damaging stereotypes
EV: the us army used an IQ test before WW1 which was culturally bias toward the dominant white majority. the test showed that african americans had low IQ’s and had a negative effect on the attitudes of americans towards this group
AN: this highlights the negatuve impact that culturally bias research can have
evaluation: individualistic vs collectivist
ID: psychologists have to be careful not to over emphasise cultural bias in contemporary psychological research, especially with the individualistic vs collectivist distinction
Q: individualistic cultures (like the US) value independence, personal freedom and individual achievement. collectivist cultures such as japan are said to place more emphasis on interdependence and the needs of the group.
EV: however, critics have argued that the development of modern society, in particular the increased interconnectedness between cultures, means that this distinction largely does not apply.
takano and osaka: found that in 14 out of 15 studies, the traditional distinction between individual and collectivist cultures did not exist.
AN: this suggests that the individualistic vs. collectivist distinction appears to declined in its existence and so it can be argued that psychologists need to move away from using such categorisations/distinctions.
evaluation: progress in diagnosis of mental disorders
ID: an advantage of increasing the awareness of cultural bias is that it has had major practical and theoretical applications
Q: it therefore has had a major contribution to psychology.
EV: this has had major benefits, for example in the diagnosis of mental illness where culture specific behaviours were often mis-diagnosed as symptomatic of psychological abnormality. recent issues of diagnostic manuals such as the DSM now include a list of culture specific behaviours.
AN: this is a major step forward as such understanding of cultural differences and variations can lead to more accurate diagnosis of mental health issues. a recognition of cultural differences leads to less discrimination.
