Issues and Debates - Cultural Bias Flashcards
What is culture?
The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of society or some other collection of people.
What is cultural bias?
The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of our own cultural assumptions. This distorts biases or judgements.
What is cultural relativism?
The view that behaviour, morals standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.
What is an example of cultural relativism?
Milgram’s study into obedience was originally conducted using 40 male American participants, but then also replicated using Spanish and Australian students and the results varied significantly. This suggests that Milgram’s original results were specifically bound to American cultures.
alpha bias in cultural bias
Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias where the assumption of real differences can lead psychologists to overlook universals.
beta bias in cultural bias
Cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental disorder. Some behaviours might be very rare in one culture but more frequent in another. i.e schizophrenia. By assuming the same rules universally we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but relative to the culture they may not be.
What is alpha bias in relation to cultural bias? Example
Refers to the assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. An example of this is the distinction between individualistic and collectivist cultures. We would expect individualistic cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated towards group norms and value the needs of the group over the individual. Takano and Osaka found that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in conformity. There is less of a collectivist/ individualist divide in an increasingly global world.
What is beta bias in relation to culture bias? Example
Theories that assume that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories for different cultural groups.
An example is IQ tests. Psychologists use IQ tests to study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures. There is a difference in how intelligence is viewed in individualist and collectivist cultures.
What is imposed etic?
Where a test is made in one group and then imposed on another.
What is ethnocentrism?
An example of alpha bias and leads to beta bias. Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using the standards and customs of one’s own culture. In its extreme form, ethnocentrism can lead to prejudice and discrimination against ‘lesser cultures.
What is Indigenous psychologies?
A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories in different countries.
What is an example of ethnocentrism?
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety . Therefore German mothers, whose children showed little separation and stranger anxiety, were deemed as cold and rejecting.
What is the emic approach?
The emic approach is one that emphasises the distinction of uniqueness in every culture . The problem with this is that the findings are only significant for that culture.
What is the etic approach?
The ‘‘etic’’ approach seeks universal aspects of behaviour - one way to do this whilst avoiding cultural bias is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting.
What are the limitations of cultural bias?
- Bias in research methods; Smith and Bond surveyed research in one European textbook on social psychology and found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. A considerable amount of psychology is based in middle class academic young adults who are males. This suggests that there is almost an institutionalised cultural bias in psychology.
- Consequences of cultural bias; The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ. This data has a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people , leading to stereotyping and discrimination.
- Not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias; Although there may be differences in rates of obedience and conformity between collectivist and individualist cultures, universal behaviours still exist. Facial expressions for anger, guilt, and disgust were universally recognised across all cultures.
