PAPER 3 - ISSUES AND DEBATES - culture bias INCOMPLETE

Question 1

what is culture bias?

Answer 1

• differences between cultures have not been considered properly
• tendency to judge people in terms of your own cultural assumptions, resulting in distorted conclusions
• concerned with how researchers own culture affects bias towards theories and research

Question 2

what are forms of culture bias?

Answer 2

• ethnocentrism
• imposed etic

Question 3

what is ethnocentrism?

Answer 3

• tendency to use standards, norms and values of ones own culture as baseline against how other cultures are evaluated
• see own culture as norm/desirable

Question 4

what is eurocentrism?

Answer 4

form of ethnocentrist thats particularly focused on western worlds viewpoint

Question 5

what is cultural relativism?

Answer 5

view that behaviour cannot be properly judges unless it is viewed in context of culture it originates from

Question 6

what are emics?

Answer 6

• culturally specific phenomena
• focuses on single culture to understand it from within a local context
• “insider perspective”
• linked with cultural relativism

Question 7

what are etics?

Answer 7

• phenomena across all cultures
• focus is across multiple cultures - seeks to identify psychological universals
• “outsider perspective”
• linked with ethnocentrism

Question 8

what is imposed etic?

Answer 8

a technique or theory that is rooted in a researcher’s own culture, such as intelligence test, and then used to study other cultures

Question 9

what are some examples of imposed etic?

Answer 9

• moral development (Kohlberg)
• attachment (Strange situation)
• methods used to diagnose and treat mental disorders are also imposed etics

Question 10

what are the risks of using an imposed etic approach?

Answer 10

risks the researcher imposing their own cultural biases and theoretical framework
- however these results may not fit phenomena being studied, distorting results and analysis/interpretation
(this causes ethnocentrism)

Question 11

what are the limitations of using the etic approach?

Answer 11

• criteria used by home culture may not be appropriate for other cultures
• results from psychological investigations can be interpreted to fit political ideas
• van lead to value judgements being made about other cultures (difference may lead to assumptions about inferiority)
• researchers may not be aware they’re using imposed etic
• etic has practical problems (may be hard to replicate study exactly in another culture eg Milgram’s study on obedience)

Question 12

how can Milgram’s research be evidence of imposed etic having practical problems?

Answer 12

Milgram - USA - men (general population) - 65% showed maximum level of obedience
Kiham & Mann - Australia - female students - 16% showed maximum level of obedience
Meeus & Raajmakers - Holland - general population - 92% showed maximum level of obedience

Question 13

what are the strengths of an etic approach?

Answer 13

• gives us global perspective on an issue, highlighting similarities and differences across cultures
• much quicker than an emic approach
• also ways to reduce ethnocentrism e.g. use researcher indigenous to culture being investigated e.g. Buss’ study on mate preferences was a cross cultural study of 37 different cultures with aim of looking at universal behaviours, in each cultural setting there were 3 local researchers

Question 14

what leads to culture bias?

Answer 14

researchers and methodology

Question 15

what is researcher bias?

Answer 15

• researchers will inevitably be influences by their own culture and this can have an impact on what they consider important to study and how they study it
• researchers can be influences by values, assumptions and stereotypes that exist within their own culture, designing research based on these assumptions

Question 16

what is methodology as a problem leading to culture bias?

Answer 16

sample selection can be an issue, lots of research relying on selection of undergraduate students in Western societies and in particular, American undergraduates

Question 17

what is reporting bias?

Answer 17

findings from research may be interpreted in a way that reflects an ethnocentric bias, with the researcher interpreting the findings in terms of the norms, standards and behaviours of their own culture

Question 18

what can an etic approach combined with an emic approach lead to?

Answer 18

derived etic

Question 19

what is derived etic?

Answer 19

when many parallel emic studies are carried out in different national countries, which shows there are similarities in results obtained from emic studies in different national cultures