Issues and Debates - Culture Bias Flashcards
What is culture?
Culture = a relatively organised system of shared meanings e.g. shared beliefs, attitudes and behaviours.
What is cultural bias?
- A tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture. i.e. if we are ‘normal’ then any behaviour that is different (i.e. cultural differences) is ‘abnormal’, ‘unusual’ or ‘inferior.’
- This means that the behaviour of other cultures is misrepresented. It is usually the result of ignoring the role that culture plays in influencing behaviour and so mistakenly assumes that results from studies in Western culture apply all over the world.
- We expect cultural differences in behaviours from one society to another, as different norms and values influence the way people think and behave in different places.
- However, in Psychology, there are areas of research which have ignored or misinterpreted these differences and imposed an understanding based on the study of one culture alone. This is cultural bias.
- According to Rosenzweig (1992), 64% of the world’s 56,000 researchers in psychology are American.
- In Baron and Byrne’s (1991) textbook on social psychology 94% of the studies referred to were from North America, compared with 2% from Europe, 1% from Australasia, and 3% from the rest of the world.
What is ethnocentrism?
- A type of cultural bias. It is the use of our own ethnic group as a basis for judgements about other groups. There is a belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group. Any difference seen in other groups is seen as deficiency or underdevelopment.
Ainsworth and cultural bias
- Ainsworth identified the key defining variable of attachment type as the child’s separation anxiety. The ‘ideal’ secure attachment was characterised by moderate separation anxiety.
- This led to the misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other cultures e.g. German parents seen as cold and rejecting rather than independent.
- Therefore, the Strange Situation is an inappropriate measure of attachment type for non-US children.
- Attachment types differ in different countries, with Type C more common in collectivist cultures, such as China having a 25% Type C attachment style - in contrast, 35% of German children are insecure-avoidant, due to independent parenting styles
Ainsworth and cultural bias cont.
- Ainsworth’s study of attachment is accused of using imposed etic as her ideas and ways of measurement of attachment for cultures outside of her own and generalised the findings as assumptions across all cultures
- By adopting an emic approach, Ainsworth would be able to comply to culturally relevant differences
- The ethnocentric approach of Ainsworth’s work meant that her findings were culturally biased and not generalisable to universal human behaviour
- For example, in cultures that hold collectivist ideals - such as Asian areas where community is considerably more traditional and thus receives more insecure resistant attachments than Western cultures
Asch’s study and cultural bias
- Asch’s study could be accused of being culturally biased as the conclusions were used to explain why people conform around the world, whereas critics have argued that it is not reflective of universal human behaviour
- This research could be labelled as ethnocentric as it was conducted with male American students from the 1950s and found that people from other cultures conform less such as England (Perrin and Spencer, 1980) and this therefore suggests that Asch’s conclusions are affected by cultural relativism (the US in the 1950s)
- His study could be seen as imposed etic as it is a task devised in one culture used to explain why people conform in other cultures when perhaps it would be more suitable to study reasons for conformity and adopt an emic approach using a more culturally fair test
- Furthermore, the research can be accused of being more reflecitve of individualist cultures - Smith and Bond (1988) found that people in China are more likely to conform more and so the results of Asch’s study cannot be generalised to collectivist cultures
- In addition to this, the group task involving a line judgement activity may be unfamiliar to certain cultures in the world who are less familiar with the research tradition and so the behaviour they show would be affected by demand characteristics, as they would not behave naturally
- Also, the task itself may not be the most valid way to measure conformity as this behaviour may be displayed in different ways in different cultures and so there are issues with operationalisation of variables
Evaluation of cultural bias - Weaknesses / consequences
1) The assumption from studies may be that any differences between cultures are due to nature or genetically inherited factors and thus people from different ethnic groups may then be labelled with an incorrect stereotype. For example, as less intelligent than their white counterparts. The results of IQ tests have been interpreted to fit political agendas and effectively ‘sanction’ racist policy, for example the eugenics-driven policy of restricting immigration. i.e. it validated discriminatory practices.
- Cultural bias could be used as scientific ‘justification’ to deny people from certain cultures opportunities within the workplace or wider society. This leads to different cultural behaviour being misrepresented and potentially pathologised.
2) When conducting research in Western culture, the participants’ familiarity with the general aims and objectives of scientific enquiry is assumed. However, the same knowledge and faith in scientific testing may not extend to cultures that do not have the same historical experience of research and this may mean that demand characteristics are exaggerated when working with members of the local population, compromising the validity of the research
Cultural bias evaluations - weakness cont.
3) When conducting research in different cultures, the variables under review may not be experienced in the same way for all participants - for example, behavioural expressions of emotions such as aggression may be different in different cultures (e.g. pointing is rude in Thailand). Additionally, invasion of personal space is normal in China and the breakdown of relationships is experienced differently in individualist and collectivist cultures - issues such as these may affect the interactions between researchers and participants or between Western and non-Western participants in cross-cultural studies, compromising the validity of cross-cultural research
Evaluating cultural bias - strengths
1) In the past, psychologists have referred to culture in terms of individualist / collectivist distinction; individualist culture is associated with Western countries who are thought to value personal freedom and independence - collectivist cultures such as China or India are said to place more emphasis on interdependence and the needs of the group, but it has been suggested due to global communication and increased interconnectedness, this simplistic decision no longer applies.
- For instance, Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14 of 15 studies that compared the USA to Japan found no evidence of the traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism and this suggests cultural bias may be less of an issue
2) It should not be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative and that there is no such thing as universal human behaviour - for instance, basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the human and animal world
- Some features of human attachment (imitation and interactional synchrony) are also universal, and so a full understanding of human behaviour requires the study of both universals and variations among individuals and groups
Evaluating cultural bias - strengths cont.
3) Conducting cross-cultural research may challenge our typically Western ways of thinking and viewing the world and help to deal with cultural bias - being able to see that some of the knowledge and concepts that we take for granted are not shared by other people around the world may promote greater sensitivity to individual differences and cultural relativism in the future, and it is recommended that one member of the research team is a member of the local population in order to prevent cultural bias
- This would help to counteract the criticism of scientific racism that has been made against some psychological theories in the past and make conclusions more valid as they include the role of culture
