Issues and Debates: Culture Bias Flashcards
what is cultural bias?
a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one’s own culture. psychology is mainly the study of white american males.
what’s ethnocentrism?
it’s a belief of superiority of one’s own culture group which may lead to prejudice or discrimination towards other cultures.
what’s an example of ethnocentrism?
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation. She said secure attachment was characterised by the infant showing distress when left alone. this leads to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries. German mothers were seen as cold and rejecting rather than encouraging independence. Thus the strange situation is an inappropriate measure of attachment for non-US children.
what’s cultural relativism?
the idea that norms and values can only be meaningful and understood within specific cultural and social contexts.
what’s an etic approach?
it looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal. Ainsworth’s research is imposed etic by assuming her US-based model was the norm, she imposed her own cultural understanding upon the rest of the world.
what’s an emic approach?
it functions within or inside certain cultures and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.
what’s individualism and collectivism? (A03)
individualist cultures are associated with western countries who value personal freedom and independence. collectivist cultures (China) place more emphasis on interdependence. howver critics suggest this simplistic distinction no longer applies. Takano + Osaka found 14/15 studies comparing USA and Japan, found no traditional distinctions between individualism and collectivism.
what’s the unfamiliarity with research traditions? (A03)
when conducting research in Western cultures, the participants familiarity with aims and objectives is assumed. however not all cultures have this knowledge. demand characteristics may be exaggerated when working with members of the local population, this affects validity.
what’s cultural relativism vs universality? (A03)
not all psychology is culturally relative and some behaviours are universal. Ekman suggested that basic facial expressions for emotions are the same for everyone. some features of human attachment are universal - interactional synchrony and imitation. a full understanding requires the study of both universal and variation.
