Cultural Bias

Question 1

A01

Cultural bias

Answer 1

The tendency to judge all cultures & individuals in terms of your own
cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements.
The charge is that psychological research has often ignored differences between cultures & developed theories almost entirely based on the study of one culture alone-United states

Culture – The rules, customs, morals & ways of interacting that bind together members
of a society or some other collection of people.

Question 2

examples of cultural bias

example milgram

Focusing on to what extents do theories ,concepts & models represent universal human behaviour

Answer 2

Critics argue mainstream psychology has ignored cultures as having important influence on human behaviour & mistakenly assumed that findings derivied from studies carried out in individualistic cultures can be straightforward applied to all around world
e.g Milgram’s study into obedience was originally conducted
using 40 male American p, however revealed very diff results when replicated using Spanish students
* (Miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in Spanish students)
This suggests that Milgram’s original results were specifically bound to American cultures.

Question 3

A01

Define Ethnocentrism

e.g Ainsworth strange situation

Answer 3

Judging other cultures by the standard & values of one owns culture, its a form of culture bias & belief in the superiority of one owns cultural group which may lead to prejudice & discrimination towards other cultures

• E.g of ethnocentrism-
• Ainsworth strange situation, criticised for only reflecting norms & values of American culture, she suggested ideal(secure) attachment was characterised by infant showing moderate signs of distress when left alone by mother figure, but this led to misinterpretation of child rearing practicies in other cultures which were seen as deviating from american norm.
  German mothers, whose children showed little
  separation & stranger anxiety (seen as insecure-avoidant according to Ainsworth’s
  system), were deemed cold &rejecting.

Question 4

Cultural relativism

Banduras study & ainsworth

Answer 4

The idea that cultures can only be understood from within that culture
Ainsworth research is e.g of imposed ethic, in assuming US based model of classifying attachment is the norm , ainsworth imposed her own cultural understanding on rest of the world

Question 5

A03

Not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias- there are univseral features-Ekman

Limitation

Answer 5

Not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias: Although there may be diff in
rates of obedience (Milgram) & conformity (Asch) between collectivist/ individualist cultures, universal behaviours still exist.
* e.g Ekman et al.demonstrated that facial expressions for anger, guilt & disgust were universally recognised across all cultures.
* In terms of attachment, interactional synchrony & reciprocity are universal features of infant-caregiver interactions. Thus, suggests
that to fully understand behaviour, we must look at both universal & culture-bound examples.

Question 6

A03

strength is that Contemporary psychologists are significantly more open-minded and well-travelled

Strength

Answer 6

Contemporary psychologists are significantly more open-minded and well-travelled than previously, and have an increased understanding of other cultures at both a personal and professional level.
* For example, international psychology conferences increase the exchange of ideas between psychologists which has helped to reduce ethnocentrism in psychology and enabled a more nuanced understanding and appreciation of cultural relativism.