Culture bias

Question 1

culture bias

Answer 1

The tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one’s own culture

Question 2

general background to culture bias in psychology

Answer 2

1992- 64% of the worlds 56,000 psychology researchers were American

• Predominantly a white Euro-American enterprise
• in some texts 90% of the studies have US participants
• Samples mainly contains white middle-class

Question 3

Consequences of culture bias in research-ao3

Answer 3

• Psychologists may overlook the importance of cultural diversity in understanding human behaviour resulting in theories that are scientifically inadequate
• They may also privilege their own world view over those that emerge from other cultures leading to research that either intentionally or unintentionally supports racist and discriminatory practices in the real world

Question 4

Universality

Answer 4

mainstream psychology has generally ignored cultural differences

Question 5

ethnocentrism

Answer 5

when ones own culture is seen as the norm or standard

Question 6

cultural relativism ao1

Answer 6

berry suggested that psychology has taken an etic approach (eg Ainsworths study)and should be emit (acknowledging cultural relativism)

Question 7

Emic approach

Answer 7

functions from within or inside certain cultures and identifies behaviours of the specific to that culture

Question 8

Etic approach

Answer 8

Looks at behaviours from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal

Question 9

Individualism-collectivism ao3

Answer 9

Distinction may be too simple may no longer apply, Takano and Osaka found no evidence -14 out of 15 studies that compares USA to japan found no evidence suggesting the issue of culture bias in research isn’t as big of a problem as we think

Question 10

cultural relativism versus universality ao3

Answer 10

It should not be assumed that all human behaviours are culturally specific there are some universals such as aspects of attachment and facial expression of emotion (Ekman 1989)

Question 11

Unfamiliarity within research tradition ao3

Answer 11

Demand characteristics are more likely in an unfamiliar situation

Question 12

Operationalisation of variables ao3

Answer 12

Some behaviours may not be expressed in the same way e.g. displays of aggression may be culturally relative

Question 13

challenging implicit assumptions ao3

Answer 13

Researchers own cultural views and maybe challenged, taken for granted assumptions may not be universal- may promote a greater sensitivity to individual difference and cultural relativism in the future