Issues and Debates - Culture (PAPER 2, 3)

Question 1

What is culture?

Answer 1

A shared way of life

Question 2

What was Brislin’s argument for cultural insensitivity in psychology?

Answer 2

Western cultures test intelligence “against the clock” whereas the Baganda tribe view intelligence as slow, careful, and deliberate, but they’re not more stupid.

Question 3

Why do some argue that psychology is actually a study of white males?

Answer 3

64% of all researchers were white in 1992 and in Baron and Byrne’s textbook of psychology 94% of the studies are North American

Question 4

What are some research examples of cultural bias?

Answer 4

Asch and Milgram

Question 5

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 5

The belief in superiority of one’s own cultural group

Question 6

What are the issues with ethnocentrism?

Answer 6

Any behaviours which do not conform to the model and considered unsophisticated or underdeveloped, and the model is typically Western

Question 7

What is an etic approach?

Answer 7

An approach that looks at behaviours outside of a given culture and attempts to explain theories and behaviours universally

Question 8

What is an emic approach?

Answer 8

An approach that looks at behaviours within the context of a specific culture and identifies behaviours specific to just that culture

Question 9

What is imposed etic?

Answer 9

Studies that are conducted with an emic approach, yet the researcher attempts to apply it universally