Issues and debates: cultural bias

Question 1

what is cultural bias

Answer 1

• A tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all behaviour through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture.

Question 2

what is ethnocentrism

Answer 2

• judging other cultures by the values and standards of one’s own culture.
  -> can result in feelings of superiority for one’s own culture which can lead to problems of prejudice and bias.

Question 3

what is cultural relativism

Answer 3

• The idea that norms, values, ethics and standards differ from culture to culture and so can only be understood within specific social and cultural contexts.

Question 4

What is alpha bias (in terms of cultural bias)

Answer 4

• Alpha bias assumes that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. For example differences between collective and individualistic societies.

Question 5

What is beta bias (in terms of cultural bias)

Answer 5

• Beta bias refers to theories which ignore or minimise any differences in culture.
  -> For example the use of IQ tests on non-western cultures.

Question 6

what is Berry’s take on cultural relativism?

Answer 6

• Suggests psychologists have often been guilty of using imposed etics.
  -> when we impose western beliefs on people from other cultures or belief systems and judge them by it!
• Instead we should use emic approaches – this functions from within a given culture and identifies behaviour that is specific to that culture.

Question 7

What is etic?

Answer 7

• specific culture’s norms are applied to other cultures to find universal laws -> e.g. language, attachment.
• Sample of the population cannot generalise the findings to all cultures (imposed etic).

Question 8

What is emic?

Answer 8

• Studies variations between groups.
  -> may exaggerate differences between groups whilst neglecting differences within groups.

Question 9

Give an example of ethnocentrism and imposed etics in intelligence testing (exams) (Brislin)

Answer 9

• Brislin looked at ethnocentrism and imposed etics in intelligence tests -> found that in Western cultures we often need to do things against the clock.
  -> however people of Uganda characterise intelligence as slow, careful and deliberate thought (Wober).

Question 10

Give examples of scientific racism in research (Shockley) (Goddard)

Answer 10

• Goddard (1917): race and IQ - Russians, Jews, Hungarians and Italians were ‘feeble minded’.
• Shockley (1952): genetic reasons why Black people tended to score lower on IQ tests than White people.

Question 11

Give an example of cultural bias in IQ testing (Yerkes)

Answer 11

• Yerkes devised IQ tests for the military.
• showed a correlation between the further north in the world your heritage was and your IQ.
• later shown to be false as the test relied on participants understanding Northern European and American cultures to get a high score.

Question 12

Give an example of cultural bias in the diagnosis of mental health disorders (Cochrane and Sashidharan)

Answer 12

• Cochrane and Sashidharan (95) – African-Caribbean immigrants are 7x more likely to be diagnosed with mental health issues.
• To combat this problem, DSM4 (diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders) included in its appendix a list 25 culture-bound syndromes.
  Examples…
  -> brain fog (difficulty concentrating, remembering and thinking – West Africa).

Question 13

Give one way of countering ethnocentrism

Answer 13

• encourage indigenous psychologies – the development of different groups of theories in different countries.
• Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in Africa and therefore psychological theories concerning these people must be African centred and express African values.
• Afrocentrism disputes the view that European values are universally appropriate descriptions of human behaviour that apply equally to Europeans and non-Europeans alike

Question 14

What is a problem with the emic approach and how can the etic approach be useful to counter this? (Buss)

Answer 14

• only helps our understanding of behaviour within that culture.
• etic approach seeks universals of behaviour -> one way to achieve this, while avoiding cultural bias, is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting.
• Buss did this in his classic study on mate preferences -> data collected from people in 37 different cultures in order to look at universal behaviour -> in each cultural setting there were 3 local researchers.

Question 15

list the evaluations for solutions to cultural bias

Answer 15

positive:
- evidence of differences within individualism and collectivism
- evidence of universality
- challenges implicit assumptions

Negative:
- operationalisation of variables

Question 16

(+) (-) Explain how there is evidence of differences between individualism and collectivism (Jahoda) (Token and Osaka)

Answer 16

• (+) Jahoda (1978) argues that biological evolutionary changes are so small since the stone age – therefore most new behaviours must be a product of our culture.
• (-) Tokano and Osaka (1999) – 14 out of 15 studies that compared the USA and Japan found no distinction between collectivism and individualism.

Question 17

(+) explain how there is evidence of universality in human behaviour (Ekman)

Answer 17

• Ekman (1989) argues that we must be aware of the fact there is some universality in behaviour.
• For example, basic facial expressions for emotions such as happiness or disgust are the same all over the human and animal world.

Question 18

(-) explain how there is a problem with the operationalisation of variables in cross-cultural research

Answer 18

• Problem with cross-cultural research is that variables may not be viewed in the same way by all participants.
• Behavioural expressions can be viewed differently by people in different cultures.
• This may result in misunderstandings between the researcher and participants.

Question 19

(+) explain how research is now challenging implicit assumptions

Answer 19

• Benefits of cross-cultural research is that it challenges western views.
• This may promote greater sensitivity to other cultures and prevents scientific racism of the past.
• The conclusions psychologists draw are likely to have more validity.