Culture Bias Flashcards
Universitality and bias:
- Psych researchers have beliefs and values that have been influenced by the social context within which they live.
- Aim for universitality - developing theories that apply to all people despite gender and cultural differences - regardless of time and culture
- This is often threatened by gender biases as they undermine Psych’s claims to be applied to everyone
Universitality def:
developing theories that apply to all people despite gender and cultural differences - regardless of time and culture
Culture bias:
The interpretation of a behaviour based on norms and values of one’s own culture.
Applying own cultural standards to other culture may lead to misunderstandings within research.
Form of culture bias:
Ethnocentricism
Ethnocentricism:
- Refers to a particular form of culture bias - belief in superiority of one cultural group over another.
- Also involves normalisation of one culture and seeing others as abnormal.
- In research, leads to view that behaviours which do not conform to the model (usually Western) are somehow deficient, unsophisticated or underdeveloped.
- Berry argued that ethnocentricism is caused by an imposed etic approach where western theories and research are expected to be ‘universal’. Researchers who study non-western cultures from ‘outside’ try to apply own understanding and world view to it - causing a bias.
Example of ethnocentricism:
Ainsworth’s strange situation study - ‘ideal’ attachment characterised by infant showing moderate amount of distress when away from mother. Leads to misinterpretation of childrearing in places like Germany (as do not fit American norm). E.g. German children - less likely to show such separation anxiety - as a result their mothers were percieved as cold and distant when in reality they were trying to foster independence in their children.
Cultural relativism:
OPPOSITE OF ETHNOCENTRICISM.
The idea that behaviour can only be properly understood in the context of the norms and values of the society or culture in which it occurs.
- Berry found that culturally relative theories use an ‘emic’ approach - where cultures are studied from within and attempts are made to identify behaviour and models that apply specifically to those cultures.
Example of cultural relativism:
Recognising that certain diagnostic tools such as DSM- V not universal to all cultures. One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices - this is an experience that is common in some cultures. Appreciating that the same criteria does not apply to all cultures and that we need different set of symptoms of schizophrenia in each culture is indicative of cultural relativism.
Four evals:
- Bias in research methods
- consequences of cultural bias
- individualism and collectivism
- positive strides being made within psychology
There is evidence for existance of culture bias in research methods.
E.g. Smith and Bond reviewed research in a European textbook on social psychology. Found that 66% of studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. + vast majority of ppts r undergraduate students.
Shows that there is cuture bias within our samples which needs to be addressed. In order to do this we should be aware of such imbalance and bias + try to find more representative sample which includes a variety of cultures. Done to reduce level of culture bias such as ethnocentricism.
There are drastic consequences of culture bias reflected within the tools used for assessing ethnic minorities.
E.g. a US Army IQ test from just before WW1 asked questions that were highly culturally bias (easily answered by white peoples and difficult for African-Americans - e.g. ‘George Washington is to John Adams as first to?’. The tests showed that African Americans tend to have lower scores and lower mental ages. This created and perpeptuated negative black stereotypes which were used to deprive them of opportunities in society and promotion. This shows the importance of being sensitive in research in order to not put a groupt at disadvantage. This ensures research is not being used to discriminate against people.
Some researchers argue that the method of assessing culture bias based on the traditional collectivist individualist distinction is no longer relevant to today’s world.
E.g. Osaka et al: 14/15 studies comparing USA and Japan found no evidence of a traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism. Therefore, shows that traditional individualistic (USA) / collectivist (Japan / China) divide is not a prominant anymore which is the result of modern day global communication and interconnectedness. The previous simplistic individualistic / collectivist distinction is now considered ‘lazy’ and is not actually reflective of cultural differences today. In the modern age, researchers need to be more racially sensitive when they are publishing their research as this is an increasingly delicate issue in today’s cultural climate.
Awareness of culture bias has led to positive strides being made within Psych.
E.g. researchers travel more now to other cultures compared to decades ago to visit international journal and university conferences where they come across psychologists from different cultures and countries to exchange ideas and research with. Moreover, also provides opportunities to do cross cultural research by studying other cultures from within, therefore diminishing likelihood of culture bias.
This leads to a greater understanding of behaviour in other cultures.
