cultural bias

• what are the two types of cultural bias?

  Ethnocentrism and cultural relativism.
• what is ethnocentrism?


  judging others by the value and standards of one's own culture
• what is cultural relativism?


  research may only relate to the culture it has studied
• what are all the ways to avoid cultural bias?

  -not attempting to extrapolate the findings

  -use researchers that are native to/familiar with/immersed in the culture being investigated

  -carry out cross-cultural research

  -do not assume universal norms/standards across different cultures

  -be sensitive to cultural norms/standards

  -study single culture to understand that culture (emic approach)

  -taking a reflexive approach
• evaluation of cultural bias - limitation


  classic studies: many of the classic studies are culturally biased, for example Asch and Milgrims studies were culturally biased.
• evaluation of cultural bias - strength


  due to increased media globalisation, cultural bias in research is less of an issue than it used to be
• evaluation of cultural bias - limitation


  ethnic stereotyping: a negative consequence of cultural bias is that it has led to prejudice against groups of people. Gould (1981) explained how the first IQ tests led to eugenic social policies, the tests were very culturally biased, and then the results were used to inform racist discourse about the genetic inferiority of particular cultural and ethnic groups.
• evaluation of cultural bias - strength/limitation


  it should not be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative and there is no such thing as universal behaviour. however Elkman (1989) suggests that basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the human and animal world.
• evaluation of cultural bias - strength


  cultural psychology: the emerging field of psychology studies how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience. cultural psychologists aim to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by conducting research from within a particular culture (emic approach), alongside local based researchers using culturally based techniques. this suggests that modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it