gender & culture in psychology: cultural bias

Question 1

define cultural bias

Answer 1

tendency to interpret all phenomena through ‘lens’ of ones own culture, ignoring effects cultural differences may have on behaviour

Question 2

what did henrich et al. (2010) find

Answer 2

• reviewed hundreds of studies in leading psychology journals
• found 68% research participants from US
• found 96% research participants from industrialised nations

Question 3

what did arnett (2008) find

Answer 3

conducted review & found 80% research participants were undergraduates studying psychology

Question 4

what does ethnocentrism refer to

Answer 4

particular form of cultural bias & is belief in superiority of one’s own cultural group

Question 5

example of ethnocentrism

Answer 5

= ainsworth & bell’s (1970) strange situation

• reflected norms/values of ‘western’ culture
• conducted research on attachment type & suggested ideal attachment was ‘secure’ where babies showed moderate distress when left alone by mother-figure
• led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries which deviated from american ‘norm’
• eg. japanese infants likely classed as insecurely attachment as showed considerable distress on separation (takahashi 1986)

Question 6

who drew a distinction between etic & emic approaches in study of human behaviour

Answer 6

berry (1969)

Question 7

define etic approach

Answer 7

looks at behaviour outside given culture & attempts to describe behaviours as universal

Question 8

define emic approach

Answer 8

functions from inside culture & identifies behaviours specific to culture

Question 9

what is the strange situation an example of

Answer 9

imposed etic = studied behaviour in one culture (america) & assumed ideal attachment type/method of assessing can be applied universally

Question 10

what does berry argue

Answer 10

psychology often guilty for imposed etic approach & suggests psychologists should be more mindful of cultural relativism of research

Question 11

AO3 -) most influential studies in psychology are culturally-biased

Answer 11

E:
- especially in social influence
- eg. asch & milgram’s studies conducted with US participants who were mainly white, middle-class students
- replications of studies in different cultures produced different results
- eg. asch-type experiments in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of conformity (eg. smith & bond 1993)

T: suggests understanding of topics, such as social influence, should only be applied to individualist cultures

HOWEVER, during an age of increased media globalisation, some argue the individualist-collectivist distinction no longer applies