Culture Bias

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

Culture is the rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people

Question 2

What is culture bias?

Answer 2

Culture bias is the tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions, this distorts judgements

Question 2

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 2

Cultural relativism is the view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judge properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate

Question 3

What is an example of cultural relativism? (Milgram’s obedience study in other cultures)

Answer 3

Milgram’s study into obedience was originally conducted with 40 male american participants, but then it was replicated using spanish students (finding an obedience rate of over 90%) and australian students, finding an obedience rate of 16% in female participants. This suggest that Milgram’s original results were specifically bound to American cultures

Question 4

How does cultural relativism lead to alpha bias?

Answer 4

Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook univerals

Question 5

How does beta bias present in cultural relativism? (schizophrenia + africans hearing voices)

Answer 5

Cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental disorders. Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another. For example, schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices but this experience is common in African cultures. In African cultures, hearing voices would be a sign of spirituality and people would report these experiences to their psychiatrists. By assuming the same rules universally, we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but relative to the culture, they may not be

Question 6

How do alpha biases occur in cross - cultural researches?

Answer 6

Alpha biases in culture refer to the assumptions that there are real differences between cultural groups.

Question 7

What is an example of alpha biases occurring in cross - cultural research studies? (Takana + Osana /Individualist + Collectivists)

Answer 7

Takana and Osaka reviewed 15 studies comparing the US and Japan in terms of collectivist/individualism and fund that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in conformity. This suggests less of a collectivist/individualist divide in an increasingly global world

Question 8

How do beta biases occur in cross - cultural researches?

Answer 8

Beta biases in cross - cultural research refers to theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences, by assuming that all people are the same and therefore makes it reasonable to use the same theories for different cultural groups

Question 8

What is an example of beta biases occurring in cross - cultural research studies? (IQ tests)

Answer 8

Psychologists can use IQ tests to study intelligence across cultures assuming their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures. However this may not be the case, Western scientists may see intelligence as something within a person whereas in collectivist culture intelligence would be a functional relationship depending on shared information, resulting in non western people appearing less intelligent

Question 9

What approach are tests like IQ tests described as taking?

Answer 9

IQ tests are described as taking an imposed etic approach, where a test is made in one group and then imposed on another. This approach studies behaviours outside a given group and behaviours which can be universally applied to all groups

Question 10

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 10

Ethnocentrism is the judgement of other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture. In its extreme form it is the belief in the superiority of one’s own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures

Question 11

What is an example of ethnocentrism? (ainsworth’s strange situation study)

Answer 11

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety. Therefore, German mothers, whose children showed little separation and stranger anxiety, thus deemed as insecurely - avoidant according to Ainsworth’s system. This meant they were labelled as cold and distant

Question 11

What are indigenous psychologies?

Answer 11

A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories in different countries

Question 12

What is the emic approach?

Answer 12

The emic approach is one that emphasises the uniqueness of every culture, problems with this would be findings that were only significant for a specific culture

Question 12

What is the etic approach?

Answer 12

The etic approach seeks a universal aspect of behaviour

Question 13

What is a method to ensure the etic approach is carried out?

Answer 13

To ensure the etic approach is carried out, indigenous researchers can be used in cultural settings, this way cultural biases are avoided

Question 14

What is a limitation of culture biases in studies? (research with limited application to multiple cultures)

Answer 14

Smith and Bond surveyed research in one Europ[ean textbook on social psychology and found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. A considerate amount of psychology was based on middle class young adult males. This suggests that there is almost an institutionalised cultural bias in psychology, as students would be learning about “universal” behaviours that were demonstrated only in certain cultures

Question 15

What is a limitation of culture biases in studies? (us army IQ tests)

Answer 15

The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ. This data has a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, leading to stereotyping and discrimination

Question 16

What is a limitation of culture biases in studies? (differences in rates of obedience)

Answer 16

Although there may be differences in rates of obedience (Milgram) and conformity (Asch) between collectivist and individualist cultures, universal behaviours still exist. For example, Ekman et al, demonstrated that facial expressions for anger, guilt and disgust were universally recognised across all cultures. Therefore this suggests that fully understand behaviour, we must look at both universal and culture - bound examples