Cutural Bias Flashcards
What is emic constructs?
Are specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another, look at behaviour from the inside of the cultural system.
What is etic constructs?
Analyses of behaviour focuses on the universal of human behaviour, universal factors that hold across all cultures
What is ethnocentrism?
The superiority of one’s own ethnic and cultural group.
What is meant by a culture?
The beliefs and customs that a group of people share, such as child-rearing practices.
What is cultural relativism?
Behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates.
What is imposed etics?
Construct from one culture is applied inappropriately to another
What is cultural bias?
Refers to a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the ‘lens’ of one’ own culture.
How can you avoid cultural bias?
Being able to recognise when etic is being imposed.
What are the evaluation points for cultural bias?
- Individualism and Collectivism
- Cultural relativism versus universality
- Unfamiliarity with research tradition
- Operationalisation of variables
Evaluation point: Operationalisation of variables
One issue with conducting research in different cultures is that the variables under review may not be experienced in the same way by all participants. Issues such as personal space may affect interactions between the researcher and participants.
Evaluation point: Unfamiliarity with research tradition
When conducting research in Western culture the participants’ familiarity with the general aims of scientific enquiry is assumed. However this may not extend to some cultures. Therefore demand characteristics may be exaggerated in some studies and this may have an adverse effect on the validity.
Evaluation point: Cultural relativism versus universality
It should not be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative and there is no such thing as universal behaviour. Ekman suggests that basic facial expressions for emotion are universal. Therefore critics of Ainsworth should not doubt that features such as imitation are universal.
Evaluation point: Individualism and Collectivism
Critics have suggested in this age of global communication that the simplistic distinction between collectivist and individualistic cultures. Takano and Osaka found that 14 out of 15 studies that compared USA and Japan found no evidence of the distinction. This suggests that cultural bias in research is less of an issue than it once was.
