Issues - Culture bias

Question 1

define culture bias

Answer 1

When psychological research offers a view that does not represent all cultures because cultural differences have been ignored.

Question 2

how are samples (particularly old ones) described if they are culture bias

Answer 2

WEIRD

Question 3

what is a WEIRD sample

Answer 3

Western
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democracy

Question 4

define ethnocentrism

Answer 4

a type of culture bias with the belief that one’s own culture is superior.

Question 5

what can ethnocentrism lead to in extreme cases

Answer 5

can lead to prejudice and discrimination

Question 6

define cultural relativism

Answer 6

• Appreciating that behaviour varies between cultures.
• It is essential that research considers the cultural context when examining behaviour in a particular culture.

Question 7

what is the best type of research to help cultural relativism

Answer 7

cross-cultural research

Question 8

define etic approach

Answer 8

looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal

Question 9

define the emic approach

Answer 9

functions from within certian cultures and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.

Question 10

what type of approach Ainsworth took

etic or emic

Answer 10

The strange situation used imposed etic.

Question 11

Explain how the strange situation was imposed etic

Answer 11

It took the US model as the norm and then Ainsworth imposed her cultural understanding on the rest of the world.

Question 12

outline Mead 1935

Answer 12

Mead (1935) studied 3 social groups in Papua New Guinea. She found:
* Arapesh: both sexes were gentle and cooperative – typical of ‘feminine’ western gender roles.
* Mundugumor - both sexes showed aggressive and emotional traits typical of ‘masculine’ Western gender roles.
* Tchambuli - reversal of Western gender roles – women dominant and independent; men were passive and participated in childbirth.

no need to know the names of the tribes just the differences

Question 13

what approach did Mead 1935 use

emic or etic

Answer 13

emic approach

Question 14

Explain how Mead 1935 used the emic approach

Answer 14

She studied gender roles in 3 different cultures.

Question 15

how do we help solve cultural bias

Answer 15

• increase awareness of cultural biases
• include members of the local population in the research team

Question 16

Explain how increasing the awareness of cultural bias reduces cultural bias

Answer 16

researchers are now more aware of the importance of cultural relativism

Question 17

explain how including a member of the local population in the research team helps reduce cultural bias

Answer 17

enables us to conduct valuable cross-cultural research that challanges the typical western view of behaviour.

Question 18

Give an example of where cultural bias from psychological research had a massive negative impact

Answer 18

Yerkes (just) pre-WW1

Question 19

Outline Yerkes

Answer 19

He developed an intelligence test to be used on US army recruits before WW1.
It included several sections e.g. answering questions, finding the missing part of an image

Question 20

How was Yerkes damaging

Answer 20

The research was published as fact and became very damaging to minority groups and emphasised incorrect stereotypes that resluted in Jews not being able to seek safety in America.

Question 21

What did Yerkes find

Answer 21

The average mental age of an American was 13.
European immigrants fell below Americans in terms of IQ and African Americans had th elowest IQ scores.

Question 22

How was Yerkes culturally bias

Answer 22

• The 1st half was culturally bias as a European immigrant would not have known who the past US presidents were or their order.
• The second half was culturally bias as the images depicted higher economical status activities e.g. Tennis which wouldnt have been known for poorer people - of this time largly consisting of African americans.