LS2 - Culture Bias Flashcards
Culture
The norms and values shared by a group of people.
Culture Bias
The tendency to judge people in terms of your own cultural assumption.
Enthrocentrism
Seeing the world in only one person’s cultural perspective or that one’s culture is superior to others.
Cultural Relativism
A behaviour can only be properly understood in the context of norms and values of the culture it occurs in.
Universality
A theory that can apply to everyone regardless of their culture.
Example Of Enthrocentrism
Rack claims African-Carribean are sometimes diagnosed as ‘mentally ill’ on the basis of behaviour which is perfectly normal in their culture, this is due to the ignorance of their culture by white perfectionists.
Example Of Cultural Relativism
Intelligence is different in every culture e.g. Steinberg suggests co-ordination skills essential in preliterate societies may be completely irrelevant in developed societies.
Gender Bias Evaluation
It Can Be Recognised
Contemporary Psychologists
Indigenous Psychologies
Universal Theories
It Can Be Recognised
Smith and Bond surveyed European textbooks and found 66% American, 32% European and 2% other cultural studies. We can improve this by simply studying different cultural groups.
Contemporary Psychologists
More open minded, have an increased understanding of other cultures at a personal and professional level e.g. international psychologists conferences increase exchange of ideas reducing enthrocentrism.
Indigenous Psychologies
Theories drawing explicitly on particular experiences of people in different cultural contexts e.g. Afrocentrism is a movement suggesting all black people have roots in Africa, so all theories regarding them must reorganise African context of behaviours and attitudes.
