Cultural bias Flashcards
Cultural bias
A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour
Ethnocentrism
- Means seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.
- Lack of awareness of other perspectives view of the world.
Explain how the strange situation case study is an example of ethnocentrism
Secure was defined as normal and was based on American norms
Lead to Germany being seen as cold and rejecting and Japan as over involved and array of other judgements.
Which lead to a confused view about varying parental practices
Cultural relativism
The idea that norms and values as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts
Who is an example of cultural relativism and what do they argue
(what does Ainsworth and Bell’s research illustrate)
Berry argues that
- an etic approach looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and identifies behaviours that are universal
- an emic approach functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture
Ainsworth and Bell’s research illustrates an imposed etic - -they studied behaviours inside a single culture (America) and then assumed their ideal attachment type could be applied universally
Alpha bias in terms of culture
Occurs when a theory assumes that cultural groups are profoundly different
Beta bias in terms of culture
Occurs when real cultural differences are ignored or minimised, and all people are assumed to be the same, resulting in universal research designs and conclusions
EVALUATION: Culture bias and stereotypes - criticism
Research that is culturally biased can reinforce inaccurate assumptions and have a substantial impact on society at large.
Prior to World War I, the US Army administered an IQ test that was culturally biased in favour of the dominant white majority. It should come as no surprise that African-Americans scored the lowest on the IQ scale.
This emphasises the detrimental effects that culturally biased studies can have by negatively influencing Americans’ perceptions about this group of people.
EVALUATION: indigenous psychologies - strength
Theories that specifically rely on the unique experiences of individuals in various cultural contexts has been helped by the growing understanding of culturally biased research.
Afrocentrism, a movement that argues that views about Black people must take into account the African background of actions and attitudes, is one example. All Black people have African roots
This is significant because it has sparked the development of theories that are more applicable to the lives and cultures of individuals living in Africa as well as those who are distantly related to them. It is common to view the emergence of indigenous psychologies as a benefit of cultural relativism.
EVALUATION: Classic studies - criticism
Both Asch’s and Milgram’s original studies were conducted with white m/c US participants. Replication of these studies in different countries produced rather different results
Asch-type experiments in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of conformity than the original studies in the US, an individualist culture e.g Smith and Bond
This suggest our understanding of topics such as social influence should only be applied to individualist cultures
COUNTERPOINT OF CLASSIC STUDIES BEING CULTURALLY BIASED
Individualism and collectivism distinction may no longer apply due to increasing global media e.g Takano and Osaka found that 14/15 studies comparing the US and Japan found no evidence of individualist vs collectivist differences
Suggests that cultural bias in research may be less of an issue in more recent psychological research
Extra evaluation
Cultural relativism vs universality
- Cross cultural research can challenge dominant individualist ways of thinking and viewing the world - it may provide us with a better understanding of human nature
- Research such as Ekman suggests that facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the world so some behaviours are universal
- Suggests full understanding of human behaviour requires both, but for too long universal view will be dominated
