Culture bias Flashcards
Culture bias
Prejudiced or favoured views concerning ones own culture, often to the detriment of other cultures.
Alpha bias
Theories that exaggerate differences between cultures. Often leads to stereotyping.
Beta bias
When differences between cultures are minimised.
Ethnocentrism.
The tendency to view ones own culture or ethnic group as superior and judge based on values of one group.
Cultural relativism.
The principle of regarding beliefs, values, and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture.
Difference between Emic and Etic approach.
Emic- behaviours that are specific to that culture.
Etic- behaviours that are universal.
WEIRD sample
Western.
Educated.
Industrialised.
Rich.
Democratic.
Weird participants (Heinrich)
Heinrich found in major psychology journals that:
-68% of research participants were from the United States.
-96% were from industrialised nations.
-67% of American students were undergraduate psychology students.
- American university student 4,000 times more likely to be participant than someone from non-Western background.
How to prevent culture bias.
-Don’t extrapolate findings /theories to cultures not represented in sample.
-Use researchers familiar, immersed in culture being investigated.
-Don’t assume universal norms/ standards and be sensitive to them.
-Use emic approach.
-Constantly reflect on own biases.
Examples of culture bias in topics.
Psychopathology- Jahoda’s criteria for normality culturally biased and ethnocentric. Doesn’t apply to collectivist cultures. Some cultures not taken into consideration when understanding abnormality e.g. hallucinations normal in Haiti.
Memory- most samples are WEIRD. Lack of representation reduces generalisability.
Schizophrenia- African British men 9x more likely to be diagnosed due to culture bias and overcaution for the culture again hallucinations normal in Haiti. Classification of mental illness culturally biased.
Social influence- Smith and Bond investigated conformity levels across cultures that used Asch’s procedure and found lower conformity in individualistic cultures suggesting Asch doesn’t apply to all cultures, most samples WEIRD.
Implications of cultural bias- recognising it in psychology. (Smith and Bond).
One way of dealing with it is to identify it when it occurs. Smith and Bond surveyed research on social psychology in a text book and found 66% of studies were American, 32% European and 2% from rest of world. Its been found in 2010 67% of participants are American psychology undergraduates. Suggests research is severely unrepresentative but this can simply be improved through sampling different cultural groups. If we recognise we can improve.
Implications of cultural bias- progress.
Although its difficult to approach research completely objectively without any level of conscious or unconscious culture bias psychological researchers do give consideration to these matters and an increased understanding of this issue is helping to reduce ethnocentrism in psychology. Today psychologists are well-travelled and hold international conferences which exchange research across cultures to minimise the issue.
Implications of culture bias- indigenous psychology.
Indigenous psychology has been developed which aims to explicitly draw on the experiences of individuals in different cultural contexts. One example is Afrocentrism which emphasises the importance of recognising the African context of behaviours and attitudes. Such approaches are said to hold strength in regards to cultural relativism.
Consequences of culture bias- stereotypes.
Culturally biased research can have severe implications through validating damaging stereotypes. Tests which were formed with bias may advantage those participants from derived cultures. For example Americans more likely to perform well on IQ test that other cultures when the test was constructed in America. Results from such research then inform attitudes on intelligence of different cultures suggesting Americans are more intelligent. Findings are invalid and inaccurate and contribute to negative stereotypes.
Consequences of culture bias- Nobles.
Nobles argues western psychology has been a tool of oppression and dominance. Psychological data has been used by psychologists and others to justify social policies that harmed people of colour. These include racial segregation, diminished educational opportunities, restrictions on immigration, institutionalisation and forced sterilization. Psychology has sustained and failed to challenge research, practice and policy that support the continued belief in white superiority.
