Cultural Psych. Ch. 4 Flashcards
Moderacy bias and solutions for it
When responding to surveys, Moderacy bias is the tendency to choose numbers towards the middle of the scale. Avoid providing participants with a middle answer response. Ask for yes / no responses or standardize tests.
Back-Translation
Problems with translating surveys in languages you do not speak. Solution to this is to use back translation. Translator 1 - translates materials from original language to target language. Translator 2- translates materials back to original language. 3- original and back- translated materials are compared and discrepancies are resolved.
Acquiescence bias and solutions to it
Tendency to agree with most items on a measure. Solution, reverse half the items. Ex. I think I am a great person 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. I think I have a lot of faults 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.
Deprivation effect
Tendency for people to value what they like and not what they have. Americans value ‘humility’ more than Chinese and Chinese value ‘independence’ more than Americans. There are no clear solutions, interpret results with caution.
Extremity bias
Tendency to choose numbers towards the end of the scale.
Reference group effect and solutions for it
Responses to questions depends on the group that one is using for reference. Ex. How do you respond to the item ‘I am tall’? Are you referencing Shaquille o’Neil or Martin Short? Solutions- questions should be as objective and concrete as possible, ask about frequencies of specific behaviors. Ex. Don’t ask ‘how sociable are you?’ Ask ‘how many parties yo you go to?’ Use behavioral and physiological measures.
Culture-level measures
Assessment of how cultures affect peoples thinking. The goal is to measure people’s thoughts in an effort to see the effects of culture. In order to measure culture, data must be objective and capable of being replicated by others and it should be quantifiable so we can conduct statistical analysis to determine whether our hypotheses are supported. Ex investigate cultural messages to which individuals are habitually exposed. Researchers contrasted working class and upper muddle class Americans. Researchers reasoned these two groups were receiving different cultural messages based on the lyrics of the music they listened to. Country music was more popular among the working class people and rock music was more popular to the upper muddle class. Coders were used to reach a consensus that country music conveys more messages about resilience and rock music conveys more messages about uniqueness.
Problems using WEIRD samples
Issues lie with generalization, do findings apply to non student populations or non industrialized societies. Findings are also less powerful since students in industrialized societies share many of the same experiences. (Powerfull study= ability to detect cultural differences).
Best ways to establish psychological universals
Research needs to utilize multiple methods, then replicate the results with a different kind of method. Pick two cultures that vary greatly on as many dimensions as possible (language, geography, philosophical traditions, level of education etc.). If there is similarity in a particular psychological process between two cultures that are maximally different, this would be compelling evidence that there is a high degree of universality for that process. Also develop knowledge about the cultures in study.
Cultural priming
The activation of cultural ideas within participants, to make certain ideas are more accessible to recipients. We use this as a tool to investigate what happens when people start thinking about certain cultural ideas.
Occam’s Razor
Any theory should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating or shaving off any extraneous assumptions. The simpler theory is more likely to be correct especially if a researcher conducts four studies on a topic each using a different method, and the findings all converge. His account is more compelling than someone giving four separate alternative explanations.
