Cultural Bias Flashcards
What is culture?
-rules, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society
What is cultural bias?
-tendency to judge all cultures in terms of your own cultural assumptions
What is cultural relativism?
-view that behaviour and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in context of the culture they originate
An example of cultural relativism
-Milgram’s study into obedience - 40 male P’s - American
-results were specifically bound to American cultures
Can cultural relativism lead to alpha bias?
-yes - the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals
Can cultural relativism lead to beta bias?
-discussed in defining mental disorders
-behaviours statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another
-by assuming the same rules universally
-may diagnose some people as mentally ill but relative to the culture they may not be
Alpha bias in cross cultural research
-assumes there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups
-eg. Distinction often made between individualist and collectives cultures
-expect individualistic = less conformist
Beta bias in cross cultural research
-theories that minimise cultural differences
-assumes that all people are the same - so can apply to different cultural groups
-eg. IQ tests - assumes intelligence applies equally
-western societies - see it as individualistic
-collectivist culture - functional relationship depending on shared info
What is ethnocentrism?
-example of alpha bias - leads to beta bias
-seeing things from the pov of our social group
-evaluating others based on our standards of our own culture
What are indigenous psychologies?
-method of countering ethnocentrism
-development of different groups of theories in different countries
An example of ethnocentrism
-Strange situation - cultural relativism
-suggesting that secure attachment was only characterised by moderate anxiety + separation
-therefore German babies who showed little anxiety - mothers deemed cold + rejecting
Negatives - bias in research methods
-Smith + Bond - surveyed European textbooks
-66% of studies + American, 32% = European
-considerable amount on middle class males
-suggesting there is an institutionalised cultural bias in psychology
Evaluation - consequences of cultural bias
-US army IQ test - EU immigrants fell below white Americans in IQ
-has a profound effect on attitudes held by americas on certain groups of people
=stereotyping + discrimination
Evaluation - worldwide psychology
-researchers travel more = greater understanding of other cultures
-opportunities to conduct cross cultural research
-international conferences - reduces ethnocentrism
-Bond + Smith - not all cultures will be familiar with research traditions = greater ‘please u’ demand characteristic
