Issues and Debates: Culture bias

Question 1

What does universality outline about culture bias?

Answer 1

• Henrich reviewed hundreds of studies in psychological journals and found that 68% of research participants came from the USA, 96% from undustrialised nations, and 80% of research particiapnts being undergraduates studying psychology.
• Suggests that findings in psychology may have a strong cultural bias and therefore lack universality.

Question 2

What is ethnocentrism in culture bias?

Answer 2

• A type of culture bias where you view your cultural group as superior.
• E.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation has been criticised for reflecting only the norms of western culture and ethnocentrism.
• The research conducted on attachment types suggested that the idea attachment type was characterised by infants showing moderate amounts of distress when left by mother figure (secure attachment).
• However this led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries that deviate from these Western ideas. E.g. infants in Japan were more likely to be classified as insecurely attached because they showed severe distress when parted from mother figure- it is likely that this finding is due to the fact that Japanese infants are rarely separated from their mother.

Question 3

What is cultural relativism in culture bias?

Answer 3

• The idea that certain norms and values need to be viewed in a certain cultural context to be understood and meaningful.
• An emic approach functions from inside a given culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture, whereas an etic approach functions from outside a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as unversal/
• E.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation takes an impsoed etic approach- behaviour was studied inside one culture (America) and then assumed that attachment types could be applied universally.

Question 4

Name the 4 evaluation points for culture bias in psychology:

Answer 4

1) Cultural psychology (S)
2) Universality (L)
3) Classic studies (L)
4) Ethnic stereotyping (L)

Question 5

Explain ‘cultural psychology (S)’ as an evaluation point for culture bias in psychology:

Answer 5

• A strength is the emergence of cultural psychology- the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experiences.
• Cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking up an emic approach and and conducting research from inside a culture- often researching only two cultures (rather than a variety) and working alongside local researchers.
• Suggests that modern researchers are mindful of the dangers of culture bias and are taking steps to avoid it.

Question 6

Explain ‘universality (L)’ as an evaluation point for culture bias in psychology:

Answer 6

• A limitation is that not all psychology is culturally relative and there are examples of universal human behaviour.
• Research suggests that facial expressions for emotions, such as happiness or disgust, are the same for the human and animal world.
• Despite criticisms of attachment research, some features of human attachment e.g. imitation and interactional synchrony are universal.
• Suggests that while using an imposed etic approach can useful e.g. understanding how culture shapes our behaviour, an etic approach to cross-cultural research can also be applicable.

Question 7

Explain ‘classic studies (L)’ as an evaluation point for culture bias in psychology:

Answer 7

• A limitation is that many of the most influential studies in psychology are culturally biased.
• Cultural bias is especially prevalent in studies of social influence. E.g. both Asch’s and Milgram’s original studies were conducted with exclusively US participants- many of which were middle class and white.
• Replication of these studies show different results. E.g. replications of Asch’s experiment in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of conformity than the original experiment (within an individualist culture).
• Suggests that our understanding of topics, such as social influence, should only be applied to individualist cultiures.

Question 8

Explain ‘ethnic stereotyping (L)’ as an evaluation point for culture bias in psychology:

Answer 8

• A limitation is that cultural bias can lead to prejudice agaisnt groups of people.
• Gould argues how the first intelligence tests led to eugenic social policies in the US.
• Psychologists at the time produced IQ tests that were conducted on army recruits during WW1. Much of the content of the test was ethnocentric e.g. assuming participants would know the names of the US presidents.
• The results shown that Eastern European and African-American individuals received the lowest test scores. This was not taken as a critisism of the test, but as a racist claim arguing the genetic inferiority of particular ethnic groups.
• Ethnic minorities were therefore deemed ‘mentally unfit’ in comparison to the white majority and were denied educational and professional opportunities as a result.
• Suggests that cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination towards specific cultural groups.