Gender and culture in Psychology: Cultural Bias Flashcards
Define cultural bias.
A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of one culture, ignoring the effects of cultural differences
What was Henrich and Arnett’s research?
Henrich reviewed hundreds of psychological journals and found that 68% of the research participants were from the US and 96% were from industrialised nations
This shows most of research we study has cultural bias
Arnett found that 80% of the research participants were undergraduates studying psychology
What term did Henrich coin?
WEIRD
W = westernised
E = educated
I = industrialised
R = rich
D = democratic
Define ethnocentrism.
Refers to a particular form of cultural bias and a belief in the superiority of ones cultural group. This may lead to prejudice and discrimination against other groups
What is an example of ethnocentrism?
Marie Ainsworth conduced her study in the US and identified the ideal attachment type as secure attachment leading to misinterpretation of attachment types in other countries where behaviour deviated from US
For example, Japanese infants were more likely to be classed as insecure resistant but this was due to child rearing methods
What is cultural relativsm?
The idea that norms and values can only be meaningful and understood in specific cultural contexts.
What did John Berry find?
- John Berry found a distinction between emic and etic approaches
- An example is Marie Ainsworths research that studied attachement and assumed that it could be applied universally
What is etic?
Looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
What is emic?
Functions inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to the culture
What is a limitation? (CB)
One limitation is that there are influential studies that are culturally biased
For example, Asch and Milgram were both conducted in the US using US participants
Replications outside these cultures produced very different results
C: Takano and Osaka found that in 14/15 studies in the US and Japan there was no evidence of collectivist or individualism
What is a strength? (CP)
One strength is the emergence of cultural psychology.
Dov Cohen found that cultural psychology is how people are shaped by cultural experience.
The emergence of this field incoporates anthropology, sociology and political science and strives to avoid ethnocentric approaches by taking an emic approach and using cross cultural research with large numbers of countries
What is a limitation? (ES)
One limitation of cultural bias is that it has been used and has led to prejudice such as ethnic stereotyping.
Jay Gould explained that the first intelligence tests have led to eugenic social policies.
Psychologists tested 1.75 million army recruits and found that the test was ethnocentric and assumed everyone knew president names. This led to European and African Americans recieving low scores and has been used to excuse racism and genetic inferiority
This led to ethnic minorities being labelled as mentally unfit and feeble minded.
