Culture Flashcards
(18 cards)
Is culture bias an issue or a debate
Issue
Where is most psychological knowledge from and an example
WEIRD population.
Westernised, Educated people from Indistrialised, Rich, Democracies
- Of the studies in a British psychological textbook, 66% were American, 32% were European and 2% came from the rest of the world.
- 825 of research studies use undergraduates as particpants and 51% were psychology students
Why might this be an issue
Because psychology claims universality - which is the idea that research draws conclusions that can be applied to all. But can we draw conclusions form such a limited sample? Or does all psychological research only tell us about the WEIRD population.
What is culture bais
This occurs when people from one culture make assumptions about that behaviour of people from another culture based in their own cultural norms
Whats culture
A learned set of perception about beliefs, value and norms of which affect the behaviour of a large group of people.
What does the concept of culture not apply to
The geographical location, for example, just because research is carried out in another country, we cant just assume there is culture bias.
What does etics mean
Behaviours that are universally found everywhere
What does emics mean
Behaviour that are culturally specific
Whats an advantage of carrying out cross-cultural studies
Helps us consider what behaviours are innate (nature) and what are learnt (nurture). This is because if its found across all cultures (etics) it suggests that its nature and if its found culturally specific (emics) it will be learnt suggesting that its nurture.
Whats an example of a etic study
This was supported by a piece of research into sex differences in mate selection. (Carried out in 36 countries).
Male prefaces = attractive and young as its a sign of fertility.
Female preferences = financially secure as its a sign to ensure survival for a baby
This was a universal findings therefore its an etic behaviour
Whats an example of emic study
The study by Mead, where she studies tribes in Padua New Guinea
In the first tribe, women and men were dominant and agressive (showing stereotypical male behaviour)
Seconds tribe, women and men were caring and nurturing (showng stereotypical female behaviour)
Third tribe, women were dominant and men were caring.
This is nutrure because the behaviour differs throughout all the tribes. (Emic)
Whats an issue with culture bais
Ethnocentrism- this refers to us using our own ethnic basis judgment about other groups, this is an issue because we could see different behaviours as ‘wrong’ or strange, when its the norm for another culture.
What is alpha bias in culture and an example
(Ethnocentrism)Refers to the tendency to assume that differences in other cultural groups, indicate inferiority compared to one culture. As a result, other cultures and their values are often undervalued.
For example, a psychologist (that was a supporter of Freud) traveled to Africa as well as South America and India to investigate what he referred to as ‘primitive’ cultures and so called ‘primitive’ people. This is an example of alpha bias as he viewed black people as less developed andd inferior to white people.
What is beta bais and examples
(Ethnocentrism) This refers to ignoring or minimising actual and real important cultural differences which can disadvantage cultural groups.
The use of psychological tests, developed in one culture and used in another (imposed etic)
One test was an IQ test and developed in the west (embedding assumptions about intelligence). They were asked which is the odd one out:
Hammer
Axe
Log
Saw
The embedded assumption was that log was the odd one out and this was the ‘correct’ intelligent answer, this is because 3 are tools and the log isn’t. However when they are thi question in rural Russia, they said that hammer was the wrong one. This is because from their point of view you would use axes and saws to cut logs. But this would mean that the Russians would get scored lower on the IQ test (putting them at a disadvantage) suggesting this is an example of beta bias
Another example was the strength situation
This was made in the USA but then was used to look at attachments globally. In the USA, insecure-avoidant would be viewed as negatively as the child would be seen as igniting their parent, but in Germany would be viewed positively bec abuse to shows independence. This is an example of beta bias because from the USA point of view, secure is the best type of attachment and this then disadvantages German children as in Germany they encourage a insecure-avoidant attachment
Whats another issue with culture bias
Cultural relativism - this is the idea that all culture are equally worthy of respect and studying another culture and identifying the way that they see the world
Alpha bais - the assumption of real differences in behaviour between cultures leads to psychologists trying to overlook universals.
Beta bias - the assumption that the group of particpants used in cross cultural research of representative of that whole culture.
Whats a difference or bias within culture
It’s important to not mistake these as cultures can have difference and it’s not bias.
For example, a content analysis was complete woth over 700 sympathy cards and it was found that in America they used fewer words and more images as well as ‘up-beat’ messages in comparison to Germany.
This is a difference not bais
However it’s important to identify that differences found aren’t a result of gender bias. For example, a study was done into happiness between cultures and found there was differences between collectivist and individualistic cultures. However, it could possibly be that the questionnaire was designed in western culture and collectivist cultures could express their happieness in different ways to what the questionnaire represented. Therefore any differences that wee found could have possibly been from culture bias.
How can a psychologist overcome this
Indigenous psychologists - if psychological research is being carried out in non-western societies then they should be carried out by members of their culture rather then western psychologists.
This will
-avoid miscommunication
-make participants feel more comfortable
-reduce ethnocentrism
This was done in the strange situation
Conclusions about culture bias
This is an issue, and it reduce the validity of the research and they cant be generalised
The ways to overcome culture bias are pretty effective but it cant completely eliminate it, just reduce it
