Issues & Debates - Cultural Bias Flashcards
Define culture
The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members
of a society or some other collection of people.
Define cultural bias
The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements.
Define cultural relativism
The view that behaviour and morals cannot be
judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they
originate.
Example of cultural relativism - Milgram
Milgram’s study into obedience was originally conducted
using 40 male American participants, but then also replicated using Spanish students
(Miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in Spanish students) and Australian
students (where only 16% of female participants continued to the highest voltage setting,
as shown by Kilham and Mann). This suggests that Milgram’s original results were
specifically bound to American cultures.
How can cultural relativism lead to alpha bias?
Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals.
How can cultural relativism lead to beta bias?
Cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental
disorder. Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent
in another, i.e. schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices but this experience is more
common in African cultures, where hearing voices is a sign of spirituality and so individuals
are more likely to openly report these experiences to their psychiatrist. By assuming the
same rules universally we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but relative to the
culture they may not be.
Alpha bias in cross-cultural research
With regards to culture, alpha bias refers to the assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups.
An example is the distinction that is often made between individualistic and collectivist cultures. We would expect individualistic
cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated towards group norms and value
the needs of the group over the individual.
For example, Takano and Osaka reviewed 15
studies that compared the US and Japan in terms of collectivist/individualism and found that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in
conformity. This suggests that there is less of a collectivist/individualist divide in an
increasingly global world.
Beta bias in cross-cultural research
Refers to theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences, They do this
by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same
theories for different cultural groups. An example is IQ tests. Psychologists use IQ tests to
study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence
applies equally to all cultures. However this may not always be the case. Western societies
see intelligence as something within the individual whereas in a collectivist culture
intelligence is a functional relationship depending on shared information between the
individual and society. The result is that non-western people may appear less intelligent.
Such tests are described as taking an “imposed etic” approach, where a test is made in
one group and then imposed on another. This approach studies behaviours outside a given
group and behaviours which can be universally applied to all groups.
Define ethnocentrism
Seeing things from the
point of view of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using
the standards and customs of one’s own culture. In its extreme form, ethnocentrism can
lead to prejudice and discrimination against ‘lesser’ cultures.
Define indigenous psychologies
A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories in different countries.
Example of ethnocentrism - Ainsworth
Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is an example of cultural
relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate
separation and stranger anxiety. Therefore, German mothers, whose children showed little
separation and stranger anxiety (thus being insecure-avoidant according to Ainsworth’s
system), were deemed as cold and rejecting
Define emic vs etic
Emic approach is one that emphasises the distinction of
uniqueness in every culture, problem with this is that findings are only significant for that
culture. The “etic” approach seeks universal aspects of behaviour - one way to do this
whilst still avoiding cultural bias is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting.
Evaluation of cultural bias - bias in research methods -
Smith and Bond surveyed research in one European textbook
on social psychology and found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and
2% from the rest of the world. A considerable amount of psychology is based on middle
class academic young adults who are males. This suggests that there is almost an
institutionalised cultural bias in psychology, as students would be learning about
‘universal’ behaviours that were demonstrated only in certain cultures.
Evaluation of cultural bias - consequences of cultural bias -
The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants
fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ. This data has a profound effect on
attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, leading to stereotyping and
discrimination.
Evaluation of cultural bias - Not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias
Although there may be differences in rates of obedience (Milgram) and conformity (Asch) between collectivist/Eastern and
individualist/Western cultures, universal behaviours still exist. For example, Ekman et al.
demonstrated that facial expressions for anger, guilt and disgust were universally
recognised across all cultures. In terms of attachment, interactional synchrony and
reciprocity are universal features of infant-caregiver interactions. Therefore, this suggests
that to fully understand behaviour, we must look at both universal and culture-bound
examples.
