gender and culture bias Flashcards
what is gender bias?
what is universality?
what is androcentrism?
what is alpha bias?
what is beta bias?
what are the positive evaluations for gender bias?
- P- A positive of having a greater understanding about the impact of gender bias is that this can help us to reduce this in future research and to ensure that the research is reported with the understanding that gender bias may be a problem.
E- For example diagnostic criteria and training of physicians needs to reflect the fact that women and men may exhibit symptoms differently.
E- Also in future research institutions should try to ensure that both males and females are represented in both the research sample and in the researching process.
L- Therefore our understanding of research bias can help research to be more inclusive
which will inevitably improve society.
what are the negative evaluations of gender bias?
- P- A major problem with minimising the differences between genders (beta bias) and research being androcentric (mostly on males) is that it can have a negative impact on diagnosis of many mental health issues.
E- A lot of research used to inform diagnostic criteria is conducted on males and therefore may not be applicable to females.
E- For example in schizophrenia diagnosis there are a disproportionate number of men diagnosed with the disorder in comparison to women. According to Cotton et al. (2009), this may be because female patients appear to be more able to continue in work and have good family relationships. This better interpersonal functioning might lead to practitioners under-diagnosing schizophrenia in women.
L- This suggests that further research needs to be conducted on females to ensure that the diagnostic criteria is applicable to both genders to increase the validity and reliability of diagnosis.
- P- A big problem with gender biassed research is that it may lead to misleading assumptions about female and male behaviour. This could fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discriminatory practices.
E- For example research into attachment types focuses on the role of the mother, for example the strange situation and the stages of attachment. This may put pressure on women to stay at home and for society to continue to reinforce the idea that women should be the caregiver.
E- This could negatively affect both genders as stay at home dads may be stigmatised and women may feel pressure to stay at home and not continue with their careers.
Extend- However some people would argue that this research takes into account the demands of childbirth and breastfeeding on the body and therefore stops women feeling pressured to go back to work too early.
L- Therefore it is important that research is balanced and the issues are clear to ensure that
certain groups do not feel that they are being negatively discriminated against.
- Point - Research suffering beta biases may suffer low accuracy.
Evidence - For example, Milgram’s research and subsequently theories of obedience like the agentic state failed to consider any sex differences in obedience, despite there logically being differences. This was later seen in Sheridan and King’s obedience research.
Elaboration - As a result of this, the theories are possibly only correct for one sex (in this case, males) and cannot be accurately applied to females. Therefore, Milgram and the agentic state explanation probably suffer from low validity and explanatory power.
Link back - Therefore, the theories of obedience need further research to ascertain if differing rates in obedience are consistent between the exes.
what is culture bias?
what is ethnocentrism?
- The view that our own culture should be the basis for judgments of other groups. The views, beliefs and cultures of our own group are ‘normal’ or superior and those of other groups are ‘strange.’
This limits the validity of these theories and neglects the important cross cultural differences.
E.g. when assumptions about one’s own culture are considered generalisable to other cultures
what is emic approach?
- One way to help reduce cultural bias is to employ an EMIC approach.
This is where one culture is studied in order to discover culture specific behaviour and they will only generalise their findings to the culture they have been studying.
They do not try to generalise to everyone.
(e.g. Malinowski)
- A PROBLEM WITH EMIC APPROACH = Hard to get a true understanding of the culture if you are not a member of it, especially when carrying out experiments where there is limited contact and usually a small sample.
what is etic approach?
- This type of approach seeks to develop universal, ‘nomothetic’ theories about human nature and behaviour that span all cultures.
Imposed Etic:
Refers to the use of a measure (e.g DSM) which has been developed according to the values of one culture and used to make assessments in that culture. And then used to study or judge behaviour in another culture with alternative cultural reference points.
- EXAMPLE = Ainsworth’s Strange Situation
Many researchers assume that the SS has the same meaning for the infants from other cultures, as it does for american children. German children, on average demonstrator a higher rate of insecure-avoidant behaviour. However, it is not the case that Germans mother are more incentive than american mothers. Instead they value and encourage independent behaviour.
What is culture relativism?
- Cultural relativism is the principle of regarding the beliefs, values and practices of a culture from the viewpoint of that culture itself.
The principle is sometimes practiced to avoid cultural bias in research, as well as to avoid judging another culture by the standards of one’s own culture. For this reason, cultural relativism has been considered an attempt to avoid ethnocentrism.
what are the negative evaluations of culture bias?
- P- A major problem with minimising the differences between cultures and research being ethnocentric is that it can have a negative impact on diagnosis of many mental health issues.
E- A lot of research used to inform diagnostic criteria is conducted on western patients. For example, Malgady’s (1987) research has demonstrated that different cultures interpret symptoms of mental disorders in very unique ways. This research showed that in traditional Costa Rican culture hearing voices is interpreted as spirits talking to the individual, whereas in the USA the same phenomenon is interpreted as a core symptom of schizophrenia.
E- As most diagnostic criteria used by physicians is based on western cultures this is likely to assume that these behaviours are universal and not take the patient’s culture into account leading to misdiagnosis.
L- This suggests that further research needs to be conducted into how people from
different cultures may exhibit different psychological disorders.
- P- A big problem with culture biased research is that it may lead to misleading assumptions about other cultures. This could fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discriminatory practices.
E- For example research into attachment types such as the strange situation uses a western measure which has then been imposed on other cultures. Leading to some cultures being deemed as having poorer attachments with their children and therefore are assumed to have worse parenting practices.
E- For example in the study by Ijzendoorn looking at cultural variation in attachment types, Japanese children were found to have a higher number of anxious resistant attachments. However with further scrutiny of the results it is clear that the results were found as these children have never been left alone and therefore had a very different reason for their distress.
L- Therefore it is important that research is balanced and the issues are clear to ensure
that certain groups do not feel that they are being negatively judged.
- P - The consequences of cultural bias can be immensely damaging.
E - The US Army used 2 forms of IQ tests for recruits- the Alpha and the Beta. Both of these tests were supposed to be uninfluenced by education and/or culture however the tests have been criticsed for being very culturally biased.
This is because the Alpha test included questions such as “Washington is to Adams as first is to …….” which clearly someone who was unfamiliar with American culture would perform poorly on. The Beta test consisted of picture completion tasks however the pictures used were culturally specific and if participants had no knowledge of the items, they would have been unable to the answer questions correctly. After testing individuals were graded from A to E, which indicated suitability for the army; for example, a grade D indicated a person rarely suited for tasks requiring special skill, forethought, resourcefulness or sustained alertness.
E - As a result of the culturally biased tests the average white American man was found to have an average mental age of just 13, which is just above that of a ‘moron’. Eugenicists suggested this was due to how ‘the poor, Negroes and feeble-minded’ had interbred and lowered the overall intelligence of the population. Additionally, European immigrants were graded by their country of origin with the Slavs of Eastern Europe being the least intelligent.
L - This means that… the use of culturally biased measures and approaches can have negative impacts on individuals, for example classification within army careers and also on a wider scale for example, supporting or further promoting harmful stereotypes.
what are the positive evaluations of culture bias?
- P- A positive of having a greater understanding about the impact of culture bias is that this can help us to reduce this in future research to ensure that the research is reported with the understanding that differences in cultures needs to be taken into account.
E- This has led to Indigenous psychologies. This is the development of different groups of theories in different countries. For example, Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in Africa and that psychological theories concerning such people must therefore be African centred and must express African values.
E- This approach suggests that the values and culture of Europeans at worst devalue non- European people, and at best are irrelevant to the life and culture of people of African descent.
E- Leave this blank
L - Ultimately, indigenous psychologies can help us reduce cultural bias in psychology.
- P- There is evidence to suggest that many behaviours are not universal and therefore cultures should be researched using an emit approach.
E- For example, Berry (1969) replicated Asch to see whether the conformity rates seen in the US were repeated among the Temne people of Sierra Leone or the Inuit of Canada. The Temne had high rates of conformity but the Inuit had low rates; the difference was put down to alternative styles of living (agricultural vs hunting).
E- This supports that conformity is not universal and Asch’s research should not be applied to all cultures.
L- Using an emic approach to research will allow us to understand cultures better and also understand whether behaviours are innate and universal or affected by culture.
