Culture Bias (Issues and Debates) Flashcards
Cultural relativism
the idea that norms, values, ethics and standards differ from culture to culture and so can only be understood within specific social and cultural contexts.
-Berry (1969)
• suggest psychologists have often been guilty of using imposed etics
• this is when we impose western beliefs on people from other cultures or belief systems and judge them by it
• instead we should use emic approaches- this functions from within a culture and identifies behaviour that is specific to that culture
• this will result in psychologists being more mindful in their research and recognising cultural relativism which may otherwise be ignored or misinterpreted
Ethnocentrism
judging other cultures by the values and standards of one’s own culture. This can result in a feeling of superiority for one’s own culture which can lead to problems of prejudice and bias.
-examples:
• Ainsworth has been accused of bias in her research towards the norms and values of American culture, used 100 middle class American families suggested the ideal attachment style was secure, leading to a misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries
• Takahashi (1990)- Japanese mothers are rarely separated from their children so this test does not work as they would show higher separation anxiety
• Lzenorn and Kroonenberg (1998) conducted a meta analysis and found variations across cultures. In Germany insecure avoidant was the most common, linked to independence
Cultural Bias
a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all behaviour through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture.
• alpha bias assumes that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. For example, differences between collective and individualistic societies.
• beta bias refers to theories which ignores or minimises any differences in culture. For example, the use of IQ tests on non-western cultures.
Brislin (1976)
looked at ethnocentrism and imposed etics in intelligence tests. He fond that in western cultures we often need to do things against the clock.
-However, the Baganda people of Uganda characterise intelligence as slow, careful and deliberate thought (Wober 1974)
Scientific racism
• Goddard 1917: race and IQ- Russians, Jews, Hungarians and Italians were ‘feeble minded’
• Shockley 1952: might be genetic reasons why Black people tended to score lower on IQ tests than White people
• Herrnstein and Murray 1994: claimed that intelligence and race are linked
Yerkes 1915
• devised IQ tests in America for the military. Yerkes was attempting to make psychology a serious scientific discipline
• showed a correlation between the further north ones heritage was and ones IQ
• was later shown to be false as the test relied on the participants understanding northern European and American cultures toget a high score
-Chitling IQ test- Adrian Dove 1971:
• used to bridge the gap between different races for IQ
DSM 4 Cultural bound syndromes
• only identifiable in specific cultures
• identification: categorisation as a disease in the culture, widespread familiarity in the culture, unknown in other cultures, no objectively demonstrable biochemical or tissue abnormalities, treatment by the cultures folk medicine
Cochrane and Sashidharan and examples of Culture Bound Syndromes
• Cochrane and Sashidharan (1995): African-Caribbean immigrants are 7* more likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues
• to combat this problem, DSM4included in its appendix a list of 25 culture bound syndromes
• brain fog: difficulty concentrating, remembering and thinking (West Africa)
• Koro: the belief that the penis is retracting into the body (China)
Dittmar et al. 2006
• studied the influence of Barbie in the UK on 162 5-8 year old girls, against a control group who were given other toys
• they then asked girls about their body image
• the girls who played with Barbie had lower self-esteem
Indigenous psychologists
• one way o counter ethnocentrism in psychology is to encourage indigenous psychologies- the development of different groups of theories in different countries
• Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in Africa and therefore psychological theories concerning these people must be African centred and express African values
• Afrocentrism disputes the view that European values are universally appropriate descriptions of human behaviour that apply equally to Europeans and non-Europeans alike
The emic-emit distinction
• the problem with the previous approach (emic) is that it only helps our understanding of behaviour within our culture
• Cross culture research: Buss (1989) did this in his classic study on mating preferences. The data was collected from 10,047 individuals in 37 cultures in order to look at universal behaviour. In each cultural setting there were three local researchers
(Evaluations of Culture Bias) Individualism and Collectivisim
• Jahoda (1978) argues that biological evolutionary changes are so small since the stone age- therefore most new behaviours must be a product of our culture
• Traditionally, psychologists have looked at collectivist and individualistic cultures, however this has been criticised as a simplistic distinction between cultures because there are other factors causing differences and there are also similarities
• Tokano and Osaka (1999): 14 out of 15 studies that compared the USA and Japan found no distinction between collectivism and individualism
(Evaluations of Culture Bias) No universality
• Elkman (1989) argues that we must be aware of the fact there is some universality in behaviour
• for example, basic facial expressions for emotions such as happiness or disgust are the same all over the human and animal world
• circadian rhythm research is universal
(Evaluations of Culture Bias) Challenging implicit assumptions
• benefits of cross-cultural research is that it challenges western views
• this may promote greater sensitivity to other cultures and prevents scientific racism of the past
• the conclusions psychologists draw are likely to have more validity
(Evaluations of Culture Bias) unfamiliarity with research tradition
• participants’ familiarity with general aims and objectives is assumed
• cannot assume all cultures have the same knowledge
— smith and Bond, 1988: Bond and Smith, 1996- ‘cross cultural replications’: demand characteristics may be exaggerated and this affects validity
