ISSUES & DEBATES ( CULTURE BIAS)

Question 1

Define culture bias

Answer 1

The tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgement

Question 2

Culture bias can be explained in two ways ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Outline these

Answer 2

Ethnocentrism ( etic construct) - means seeing the world only from one’s cultural perspective , and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.

Cultural relativism ( emic construct ) - Insists that behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration . All cultures are worthy of respect

Question 3

Define :

Emic construct
Etic construct
Imposed Etic

Answer 3

Emic construct - discoveries may only make sense if culture is considered within research

Etic construct - Etic consists are discoveries that are believed to be universal to all cultures ( Ethnocentric)

Imposed Etic - Researchers outside of a culture attempt to describe behaviour within the different culture and then apply these findings universally.

Question 4

Outline two studies in Psychology showing Culture bias

Answer 4

Ethnocentrism & cultural relativism ( imposed etic) - Attachment : Strange situation

Ainsworth’s SS is an example of ethnocentric research , it was developed to assess attachment types , researchers assume S.S has the same meaning for all which it does not .

S.S imposing the universal where it does not work. The cultural variations study was undertaken poorly.

ii) BUSS study in R/ships - cultural relativism

Looked for universals and did not assume and was arguably done well - Imposed etic.

Cross cultural study as he hypothesized that being attracted to someone is not different by culture but is biological. Across 37 cultures he found men preferred young fertile women and saw physical attraction as important and women preferred older men with good financial prospects.

Question 5

Evaluate Culture bias

Answer 5

Culture bias in textbooks

Point : One way to deal with cultural bias is to recognise it when it occurs
Evidence : Smith and Bond’s survey of European textbooks found that 66% of the studies were American , 32% European and 2% of the rest of the world.

Culture bias in Schizophrenia
point: One issue is that culturally biased research can have significant real world effects.
Evidence : 6x more likely to be described as Schizophrenic if you are black. Diagnosis comes from ethnicity because of published data - ethnocentrism of the psychiatrist.
Explanation : Stereotypes are created or reaffirmed . There could be the issue of misdiagnosis based on the psychiatrist having an unconscious bias.

Indigenous psychologies

point : One strength of developing knowledge of culturally bias research is that there is heightened awareness of cultural diversity leading to theories drawn explicitly on particular experiences of people in different cultures

Evidence : Afrocentrism - suggests because all black people have roots in Africa , theories about them must recognise African behaviours and attitudes.

Explanation : This matters because it has led to theories more relevant to African people but also those removed from African origins. A strength of cultural relativism.