Controversies - Cultural Bias Flashcards
(4 cards)
If writing an essay based on the ‘cross-cultural studies’ bullet point, what do you talk about?
P: one strength by investigating universality of behaviour, it allows psychologists to explore whether certain traits are biologically determined or shaped by cultural influences.
E: Buss et al. (1998)’s study involved over 10,000 participants across 37 different cultures found consistent patterns in mate preferences, such as females prioritising resource acquisition and males valuing youth and physical attractiveness — so findings aligned with evolutionary explanations which suggests that such behaviours are biologically ingrained and not significantly altered by cultural norms.
T: Therefore, cross-cultural studies like Buss’ allow the establishment of behaviours as universal and unaffected by cultural differences, which makes a huge difference when it comes to creating valid and reliable explanations about behaviour.
COUNTER: However, these universal findings may still be shaped by global cultural homogenisation or shared societal structures, rather than true biological constants. For example, media influences and increasing globalisation may result in similar values being spread worldwide, masking genuine cultural differences and undermining claims of universality. Thus meaning cross-cultural studies may no longer be an efficient way of finding these differences anymore, leading to misinformed applications based on wrongful assumptions of behaviour
P: A weakness of cross-cultural studies is the frequent lack of truly representative samples, which lowers population validity.
E: Kohlberg’s study involved only 75 boys from Chicago, yet his theory was generalised to all cultures, ignoring intra-cultural variation and subcultural differences within America itself, leading to underrepresented rural and less-educated populations. He also used these 75 boys from Chicago to represent the whole of America when comparing them to other cultures in order to conclude that the stages were invariant and universal.
T: Therefore, findings only reflect the values of a specific socio-economic group rather than an entire culture, undermining the external validity of the conclusions drawn. Perhaps there are additional stages that are unique to specific subcultures which weren’t investigated and so are unknown and therefore Kohlberg’s research doesn’t paint the full picture on moral development.
COUNTER: We can still use cross-cultural research as long as we use stratified sampling methods, as it avoids the danger that supposed cultural differences may simply reflect differences due to sampling technique used, not genuine cultural variation
P:Another weakness of cross-cultural research is the risk of imposed etics, where researchers apply theories or methods developed in one culture to another without considering their cultural relevance or appropriateness.
E: Kohlberg’s use of moral dilemmas based on Western legalistic thinking lacked meaning in many non-Western cultures, leading participants to give responses that did not truly reflect their moral reasoning—thus compromising the construct validity of the research. Similarly, the translation of questionnaires or instructions in studies like Buss’ led to issues when participants were illiterate or unable to understand the questions, which may have distorted the data.
T: Therefore, the validity and reliability of cross-cultural findings are at risk when cultural context is not adequately accounted for.
COUNTER: However the use of back-translation, adapting measures, or involving indigenous researchers (as was done in parts of Buss’ study) can help mitigate these issues, suggesting that methodological issues are possible to overcome.
HOWEVER: The time-consuming and costly nature of ensuring cultural fairness often leads to compromises that can reinforce Western ethnocentrism, making truly culture-fair research difficult to achieve consistently.
If writing an essay based on the ‘Differences or Bias’ bullet point what do you talk about.
P: Psychological research is culturally biased in how certain behaviours are assessed between individuals of different cultures can lead to divide and fuel racist propaganda.
E: Yerkes’ Army Intelligence Tests were heavily biased towards white, middle-class Americans by including culturally specific references to American literature, foods, and everyday knowledge that immigrants and ethnic minorities were less familiar with. As a result, African-Americans and non-native English speakers scored lower, which was wrongly interpreted as evidence of lower intelligence.
T: This is strong evidence of cultural bias in psychological research, as it led to damaging real-world consequences such as the 1924 Immigration Restriction Act, and even bolstered racist ideologies like eugenics with the notion that immigrants would dilute America’s intelligence. Such misuse of biased psychological “evidence” demonstrates how research lacking cultural validity can fuel discrimination and shape harmful government policy. Psychological tools should be culture-fair, and this case highlights how failing to ensure that leads to widespread harm, supporting the claim that psychological research can be culturally biased.
P: Psychological research doesn’t have to be culturally biased as the methodological issues that create cultural bias are avoidable if we can adapt our methodologies. We can use techniques like cross-cultural studies, back-translation, or involving indigenous researchers in order to overcome imposed etics and therefore establish whether certain behaviours are universal or not.
E: Buss et al. (1998)’s cross-cultural study involved over 10,000 participants across 37 different cultures and involved both non-indigenous and indigenous researchers from the cultures that were assessed in order to avoid an imposed etic. They found consistent patterns in mate preferences, such as females prioritising resource acquisition and males valuing youth and physical attractiveness, aligning with evolutionary explanations which suggests that such behaviours are biologically ingrained and not significantly altered by cultural norms.
T: Therefore, using techniques in cross-cultural studies like Buss’ allow the establishment of behaviours as universal and unaffected by cultural differences, which makes a huge difference when it comes to creating valid and reliable explanations about behaviour.
COUNTER: However, these universal findings may be shaped by global cultural homogenisation or shared societal structures, rather than true biological constants. E.g, increasing globalisation may result in similar values being spread worldwide, and therefore whilst at surface level cross cultural studies may seem to remove cultural bias from research and allow establishment of universal behaviours, they may instead really be masking genuine cultural differences that do still exist but cannot be accessed through cross-cultural psychological research, meaning psychological explanations cannot fully capture the complexity of a behaviour.
P: cultural bias also present in diagnosis and treatment of mental health.
E: The DSM-5TR, developed in the U.S., defines disorders like schizophrenia using Western criteria, viewing symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions as negative and needing to be removed. However, in many African and Indigenous cultures, these experiences are often interpreted as spiritual or meaningful, not symptoms of illness.
T: Therefore, using a culturally biased diagnostic system risks overdiagnosis, misdiagnosis, or inappropriate treatment – such as prescribing antipsychotics to individuals who do not perceive themselves as unwell. This matters greatly in clinical psychology because it undermines the principle of valid and ethical care and may contribute to structural racism in mental health services.
COUNTER: Perhaps being culturally biased is okay as Some argue that standardisation of diagnostic criteria is necessary for ensuring consistent and scalable healthcare interventions, especially in life-threatening cases. The National Institutes of Health estimates that 5-13% of schizophrenics will die of suicide, suggesting a justification for conducting psychological research into treatments like antipsychotic drugs even if it does mean we are being culturally biased.
If writing an essay based on the ‘ethnocentrism’ bullet point what do you talk about.
P: Ethnocentrism/cultural bias is present in psychological research through imposed etics such as Western norms and values being assumed to be universal, leading to biased conclusions and misinterpretations of other cultures.
E: Myers and Diener (1995) research’s concept of SWB to assess happiness used self-reports focusing on individualistic definitions of happiness, such as personal satisfaction resulting in individualistic cultures reporting higher levels of SWB than collectivist ones. This is ethnocentric as collectivist dimension of well being like social harmony and fulfilling community roles won’t have been captured on the SWB scale, leading to the invalid conclusion that these societies were less happy
T: The weakness of this is that it makes the research socially sensitive, reinforcing unethical and unfair cultural stereotypes of other societies being deficient or less developed.
COUNTER: However, some argue that standardised measures like SWB are necessary as while they may reflect Western values, they can still offer useful insights into general well-being trends across societies.
P: psychology doesn’t have to be ethnocentric/culturally biased as Emic approaches—studying behaviours within the context of a specific culture—offer an effective way to avoid imposing Western assumptions on other groups.
E: Manson et al. (1985) studied depression among the Hopi tribe, recognising that the Western concept of “depression” did not exist in Hopi cultural terms. Instead of using standardised Western criteria, they adapted their research to the Hopi’s worldview by conducting interviews in their language using bilingual interviewers and modifying their criteria to fit the Hopi tribe.
T: Therefore an emic approach promotes ethical and effective research, preventing cultural misunderstanding and leading to more context-sensitive mental health treatment. It also reflects alpha bias by recognising differences between cultures that mainstream psychology often overlooks.
COUNTER: However, emic research lacks generalisability. Findings from the Hopi tribe, for example, cannot be assumed to apply to other groups. It’s also more time-consuming and resource-intensive than standardised cross-cultural studies (like Myers and Diener’s research), making it less practical for large-scale research
P: Despite the potential for avoidance, psychology remains heavily ethnocentric/culturally biased in practice due to its overreliance on WEIRD populations—Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic societies.
E: Heinrich et al. (2010) found that 96% of participants in psychological research come from WEIRD countries, which make up only about 12% of the world’s population. This vast sampling bias means most psychological theories are based on a narrow slice of humanity. For instance Kohlberg’s conclusion of stages of moral development being universal came from comparing just 75 boys from Chicago as a representation of America to only 5 other countries. This meant his conclusions only reflected moral values of specific socio economic groups and wasn’t reflecting humanity at large (i.e. subcultures within America as well as other countries beyond the 5).
T: Therefore this is a weakness because theories that are assumed to be universal may not apply to the vast majority of the global population, let alone the countries they claim represent in cross-cultural comparisons.
COUNTER: However, more representative sampling strategies, such as stratified sampling, can improve cross-cultural research. But until such approaches are widely adopted, the dominance of WEIRD samples ensures that psychology continues to be skewed by ethnocentric assumptions.
If writing an essay based on the ‘historical and social context’ bullet point what do you talk about.
P: Ethnocentrism/cultural bias is present in psychological research through imposed etics such as Western norms and values being assumed to be universal, leading to biased conclusions and misinterpretations of other cultures.
E: Myers and Diener (1995) research’s concept of SWB to assess happiness used self-reports focusing on individualistic definitions of happiness, such as personal satisfaction resulting in individualistic cultures reporting higher levels of SWB than collectivist ones. This is ethnocentric as collectivist dimension of well being like social harmony and fulfilling community roles won’t have been captured on the SWB scale, leading to the invalid conclusion that these societies were less happy
T: The weakness of this is that it makes the research socially sensitive, reinforcing unethical and unfair cultural stereotypes of other societies being deficient or less developed.
COUNTER: However, some argue that standardised measures like SWB are necessary as while they may reflect Western values, they can still offer useful insights into general well-being trends across societies.
P: psychology doesn’t have to be ethnocentric/culturally biased as Emic approaches—studying behaviours within the context of a specific culture—offer an effective way to avoid imposing Western assumptions on other groups.
E: Manson et al. (1985) studied depression among the Hopi tribe, recognising that the Western concept of “depression” did not exist in Hopi cultural terms. Instead of using standardised Western criteria, they adapted their research to the Hopi’s worldview by conducting interviews in their language using bilingual interviewers and modifying their criteria to fit the Hopi tribe.
T: Therefore an emic approach promotes ethical and effective research, preventing cultural misunderstanding and leading to more context-sensitive mental health treatment. It also reflects alpha bias by recognising differences between cultures that mainstream psychology often overlooks.
COUNTER: However, emic research lacks generalisability. Findings from the Hopi tribe, for example, cannot be assumed to apply to other groups. It’s also more time-consuming and resource-intensive than standardised cross-cultural studies (like Myers and Diener’s research), making it less practical for large-scale research
P: Despite the potential for avoidance, psychology remains heavily ethnocentric/culturally biased in practice due to its overreliance on WEIRD populations—Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic societies.
E: Heinrich et al. (2010) found that 96% of participants in psychological research come from WEIRD countries, which make up only about 12% of the world’s population. This vast sampling bias means most psychological theories are based on a narrow slice of humanity. For instance Kohlberg’s conclusion of stages of moral development being universal came from comparing just 75 boys from Chicago as a representation of America to only 5 other countries. This meant his conclusions only reflected moral values of specific socio economic groups and wasn’t reflecting humanity at large (i.e. subcultures within America as well as other countries beyond the 5).
T: Therefore this is a weakness because theories that are assumed to be universal may not apply to the vast majority of the global population, let alone the countries they claim represent in cross-cultural comparisons.
COUNTER: However, more representative sampling strategies, such as stratified sampling, can improve cross-cultural research. But until such approaches are widely adopted, the dominance of WEIRD samples ensures that psychology continues to be skewed by ethnocentric assumptions.
