Issues - Culture bias Flashcards
define culture bias
When psychological research offers a view that does not represent all cultures because cultural differences have been ignored.
how are samples (particularly old ones) described if they are culture bias
WEIRD
what is a WEIRD sample
Western
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democracy
define ethnocentrism
a type of culture bias with the belief that one’s own culture is superior.
what can ethnocentrism lead to in extreme cases
can lead to prejudice and discrimination
define cultural relativism
- Appreciating that behaviour varies between cultures.
- It is essential that research considers the cultural context when examining behaviour in a particular culture.
what is the best type of research to help cultural relativism
cross-cultural research
define etic approach
looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
define the emic approach
functions from within certian cultures and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.
what type of approach Ainsworth took
etic or emic
The strange situation used imposed etic.
Explain how the strange situation was imposed etic
It took the US model as the norm and then Ainsworth imposed her cultural understanding on the rest of the world.
outline Mead 1935
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
what approach did Mead 1935 use
emic or etic
emic approach
Explain how Mead 1935 used the emic approach
She studied gender roles in 3 different cultures.
how do we help solve cultural bias
- increase awareness of cultural biases
- include members of the local population in the research team
Explain how increasing the awareness of cultural bias reduces cultural bias
researchers are now more aware of the importance of cultural relativism
explain how including a member of the local population in the research team helps reduce cultural bias
enables us to conduct valuable cross-cultural research that challanges the typical western view of behaviour.
Give an example of where cultural bias from psychological research had a massive negative impact
Yerkes (just) pre-WW1
Outline Yerkes
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
How was Yerkes damaging
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.
What did Yerkes find
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.
How was Yerkes culturally bias
- 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.
