culture bias

Question 1

universality and bias:

Answer 1

•the study of psychology is built on Western cultures, undermining its pursuit of universality
•Henrich reviewed hundreds of studies and found that 68% of research participants came from the united states, and 96% from industrialised nations
•80% were undergraduates studying psychology

Question 2

what is ethnocentrism?

Answer 2

•judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture
•belief in the superiority of one’s own culture
•examples include
- SST, attachment type based on culturally shaped parenting styles
-> Japanese infants more likely to be classified as insecurely attached
-> western cultures classify being independent as having a secure attachment, compared to being dependent in eastern cultures

Question 3

what is cultural relativism?

Answer 3

•the idea that norma and values as well as ethics and moral standards can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts
•the recognition and acknowledgment of other cultures, and that behaviours are often culturally specific

Question 4

what is imposed etic?

Answer 4

an etic approach looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal

Question 5

what is imposed emic?

Answer 5

an emic approach functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture. they believe the behaviours can be generalised to every member of the culture.

Question 6

limitation: individualist vs collectivist cultures

Answer 6

•cultures like china contain many cultural variations, including some individualistic parts
•too vague to categorise cultures into two categories, it is a gross generalisation

Question 7

limitation: ethnic stereotyping

Answer 7

•has led to prejudice against groups of people, stereotypes
•the first intelligence tests led to eugenic social ppl used in the US
•they used past research from culturally biased test, like how people of African descent performed less well on the IQ test, to reinforce negative cultural stereotypes
•this led to people of African descent being denied educational and professional opportunities
•culture bias can be used to justify prejudice

Question 8

strength: cultural psychology

Answer 8

•research into culture bias has led to people being aware of the culture bias in psychology and the uncomfortable past
•they strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research from inside a culture
•modern psychologists are becoming more aware of the issue

Question 9

strength: there is universalism

Answer 9

•some behaviours are universal like interactional synchrony, indicating there may be an evolutionary basis of behaviour
•eg faces like happiness or disgust

Question 10

strength: relativism vs universality

Answer 10

•cross cultural research challenges dominant individualist ways of thinking and viewing the world, providing us with a better understanding of human nature