Issues and debates - culture bias Flashcards
key term - ethnocentrism
a type of cultural bias that involved judging other cultures by the standards and values of one’s own culture
believes in the superiority of one’s own cultural group
key term - cultural relativism
the idea that human behaviour can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts
key term - cultural bias
overlooking cultural differences by looking at human behaviour from the perspective of your own culture
key term - etic approach
studying behaviour across any cultures in order to find universal human behaviours
key term - culture bound syndromes
groups of syndromes classified as treatable illnesses in certain cultures which are not recognised as such in the West
key term - emic approach
researching behaviour by taking the role of an insider and thus seeing behaviour in the same way as members of that culture
key term - individualistic culture
Western countries that are thought to. be more independent
key term - collectivist culture
cultures, such as India and China, that are said to be more conformist and group-oriented
key term - imposed etic
a test/measure/theory devised in one culture that is used to explain behaviour in another culture
key term - research tradition
the familiarity a certain culture has with taking part in psychological investigations
what did Henrich et al (2010) find about culture bias in leading psychology journals?
68% of research participants came from the US
96% of research participants came from industrialised nations
WEIRD
term coined by Henrich et al to describe those most likely to be studied by psychologists
Western
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democratic
what is the consequence of only studying WEIRD people?
they set the norm for behaviour, causing the behaviour of people from other cultures to be seen as ‘abnormal’
leads to people from the US and Europe having an ethnocentric view of human behaviour.
How is Ainsworth’s Strange Situation an example of ethnocentrism?
only reflects Western norms of attachment behaviour
suggests the ideal attachment type was ‘secure attachment’ - led to misinterpretation of attachment in other cultures (e.g Japan)
How is Ainsworth’s Strange Situation an example of imposed etic?
studied behaviour within one culture (US) and assumed it could be applied universally
limitation - many influential studies are culturally biased
Asch and Milgram only studied participants from the US and replications in other cultures have produced very different results.
Asch-type studies in collectivist cultures found higher rates of conformity.
counterpoint - criticism of individualist-collectivist distinction
Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14/15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no evidence of collectivism or individualism.
Described the distinction as lazy and simplistic.
Lack of distinction is believed to be the result of increased media globalisation.
strength - the emergence of cultural psychology
the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience.
Takes an epic approach to avoid ethnocentric assumptions
Cross-cultural research tends to involve just 2 cultures rather than multiple.
limitation - culture bias has led to prejudice and ethnic stereotyping
the first IQ test was piloted during WWI on army recruits.
Items on the test were ethnocentric and results showed recruits from other cultures received lower scores.
Used to inform racist discourse about genetic inferiority
