Issues and Debates: Cultural Bias Flashcards
Cultural bias
The tendency to interpret + judge behaviour in terms of the values and beliefs of your own society + culture.
Sometimes leads people to form views about the behaviour of others without any actual experience with them.
Universality
Some behaviours are the same for all cultures
Ethnocentrism
Refers to viewing your own culture as the standard by which other cultures are judges.
Involves the tendency to judge your own culture as superior to others.
Cultural relativism
A behaviour can only be properly understood in the context of the norms + values of the society or culture in which it occurs.
The rejection of behaviours being universal
WEIRD - Henrich
Western
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democratic
68% of p’s in studies came from USA
96% of p’s were from Western industrialised nations - North America, Europe + Australia.
Biased view of other cultures - lead to people’s behaviour from non-westernised, less educated, agricultural + poorer cultures being seen as abnormal.
What can be done
Be more culturally relative - only apply results of research to the culture of the p’s studied. Ensure that cross-cultural research is conducted where different samples are studies - non-weird p’s
Attachment and Mary Ainsworth’s separation anxiety
Study in USA, using 100 US infants - moderate anxiety is normal for secure attachment.
In Japan - mother left, had to stop the study for 90% of children because of extreme anxiety - unnatural + unusual for the children.
Ethnocentrism - imposing own cultural standard + norms on other cultures.
Definitions of abnormality
Fernando: People from Afro-Caribbean heritage who are now living in the UK were 7 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia.
For these Afro-Caribbean cultures, spiritual practices including hearing voices are part of their culture, and typical behaviours, rather than abnormal.
