INFLUENCE OF CULTURE

Question 2

culture

Answer 2

• is the whole way of life of a particular society, For example, the norms/values, For example, women cooking One example of research into gender being culturally specific (found in some places) was Mead’s study, where she lived with various tribes in New Guinea for 6 months.

Question 3

Arapesh tribe

Answer 3

• both sexes were feminine i.e. expressive/ caring.
• Both the M+F took to bed when the female was pregnant; they were both said to bear a child.

Question 4

Mundugumor tribe

Answer 4

• both sexes were masculine i.e. assertive.
• Both didn’t like childcare so much that the baby was put out of the way in a dark place.

Question 5

Tchambuli tribe

Answer 5

• gender roles were reversed compared to Western society, females took care of trade
  and were independent, whereas men sat around gossiping and were considered incapable of making decisions.
• This shows that gender is learnt and supports the nurture view.

Question 6

Munroe and Munroe

Answer 6

• An example of gender being universal (found everywhere) is from Munroe and Munroe who found that in most societies the division of labour is organised along gender lines with men typically being the breadwinner and females being the homemakers/nurturers.
• This suggests gender has an innate basis and supports the nature view.

Question 7

One limitation of research into the influence of culture is that research lacks objectivity.

Answer 7

• For example, Mead’s study was an ethnographic study meaning she emerged herself in the life of the tribes.
• Going native means people start seeing things from the point of view of the tribe.
• This could have impacted the validity of the data, as Mead’s preference in the tribes may have caused observer bias, and so she cannot be objective.
• This is a disadvantage as it decreases the credibility of the theory.
• Furthermore, Mead’s presence within the tribes may have caused the tribe to act differently, e.g. social desirability.

Question 8

One limitation of research into the influence of culture is that research conducted by females contains bias.

Answer 8

• For example, females often agree with the nurture side of the debate to fight against stereotypes.
• For example, Mead may ignore certain behaviours because she’s looking for evidence that gender is due to nurture. For instance she did find that males were more aggressive in the tribes but didn’t report this.
• This is a disadvantage as research contains research bias, especially since she is a female therefore decreasing the validity of findings.
• Furthermore, there is a suggestion that she exaggerated the differences and characteristics of each male and female group

Question 9

One limitation of Mead’s research- there were problems of communication.

Answer 9

• For example, Mead did not speak the local language, despite trying to teach herself, and so had to rely on a translator.
• This means that information could be confused, for example the interpreter might not have translated Meads questions as she wanted them.
• This means information would have been ‘lost in translation’.
• This is a disadvantage as we cannot be sure that findings were valid and presented a true picture