Culture Bias

• Cultural Relativism is the appreciation that behaviour varies between cultures
• Ethnocentrism is emphasising the importance of one's own culture
• Pike (1954) came up with the Etic and Emic approaches
• The Etic approach is looking at a group from the 'outside' using our culture's standards
• The Emic approach is looking at a group from the 'inside'
• The Strange Situation involved beta bias and ethnocentrism as it uses Western norms and standards to compare to other cultures
• Alpha bias is the exaggeration of differences
• Beta bias is the minimisation of differences
• Alpha bias can improve understanding of cultures by finding differences
• Alpha bias can cause devaluation of cultures by overlooking similarities
• Beta bias can improve equality and access by providing equal treatment
• Beta bias can make it harder for an overlooked culture who needs recognition
• Culture bias can be reduced by using equal opportunity legislation, reflexivity, and Indigenous psychology
• Reflexivity is the ability to reflect on one's own potential bias and subjectivity
• Indigenous psychology is when native psychologists develop theories for their own culture