gender & culture in psychology: cultural bias Flashcards
(13 cards)
define cultural bias
tendency to interpret all phenomena through ‘lens’ of ones own culture, ignoring effects cultural differences may have on behaviour
what did henrich et al. (2010) find
- reviewed hundreds of studies in leading psychology journals
- found 68% research participants from US
- found 96% research participants from industrialised nations
what did arnett (2008) find
conducted review & found 80% research participants were undergraduates studying psychology
what does ethnocentrism refer to
particular form of cultural bias & is belief in superiority of one’s own cultural group
example of ethnocentrism
= ainsworth & bell’s (1970) strange situation
- reflected norms/values of ‘western’ culture
- conducted research on attachment type & suggested ideal attachment was ‘secure’ where babies showed moderate distress when left alone by mother-figure
- led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries which deviated from american ‘norm’
- eg. japanese infants likely classed as insecurely attachment as showed considerable distress on separation (takahashi 1986)
who drew a distinction between etic & emic approaches in study of human behaviour
berry (1969)
define etic approach
looks at behaviour outside given culture & attempts to describe behaviours as universal
define emic approach
functions from inside culture & identifies behaviours specific to culture
what is the strange situation an example of
imposed etic = studied behaviour in one culture (america) & assumed ideal attachment type/method of assessing can be applied universally
what does berry argue
psychology often guilty for imposed etic approach & suggests psychologists should be more mindful of cultural relativism of research
AO3 -) most influential studies in psychology are culturally-biased
E:
- especially in social influence
- eg. asch & milgram’s studies conducted with US participants who were mainly white, middle-class students
- replications of studies in different cultures produced different results
- eg. asch-type experiments in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of conformity (eg. smith & bond 1993)
T: suggests understanding of topics, such as social influence, should only be applied to individualist cultures
HOWEVER, during an age of increased media globalisation, some argue the individualist-collectivist distinction no longer applies
AO3 +) emergence of cultural psychology
E:
- according to Cohen (2017), cultural psychology is the study of how people shape and are shaped by cultural experiences
- this is an emerging field & incorporates work from researchers in other disciplines (eg. sociology, political science)
- cultural psychologists try to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach & conducting research from inside a culture, often with local researchers using culturally-based techniques
- cross-cultural research focuses on just 2 cultures instead of large-scale studies with possibly 8+ countries/cultures
T: suggests modern psychologists are mindful of dangers of culture bias & are taking steps to avoid it
AO3 -) cultural bias in psychology has led to prejudice against groups of people
E:
- Gould (1981) explained how the first intelligence tests led to eugenic social policies in the US
- psychologists used the opportunity of WW1 to pilot their first IQ tests on 1.75 million army recruits
- many of the items on the test were ethnocentric (eg. assuming they’d know names of US presidents)
- resulted in recruits from south-eastern europe & AAs receiving lowesr scores
- poor performance of these groups was used to inform racist discourse about the genetic inferiority of particular cultural & ethnic groups
- ethnic minorities were deemed ‘mentally unfit’ & ‘feeble-minded’ in comparison to white majority & denied educational/professional opportunities as a result
T: illustrates how cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice & discrimination towards certain cultural & ethnic groups
