CULTURE BIAS

• What does psychology aim to be?

  Universal, meaning the conclusions psychologists draw can be applied to anyone, anywhere, any time
• is psychology universal?

  not really, researchers are likely to be influenced by their prior beliefs and values, this undermines the universality of psychological findings as they only apply to contexts the researcher understands
• what is culture bias?

  a tendency to ignore cultural differences and assume that findings from western cultures can be applied all over the world
• what is ethnocentrism?

  judging other cultures by the norms of ones own culture and seeing cultural differences as abnormal
• what can ethnocentrism lead to?

  can lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures
• What is cultural relativism?

  the idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific contexts
• example of ethnocentrism

  Ainsworth’s strange situation, only reflected norms and values of american culture in attachment
• how can cultural bias be avoided?

  respecting cultural relativism
• evaluation point 1

  WHY it is an issue

  cross cultural research is more likely to be affected by demand characteristics and investigator effects. Eg Margaret Mead was lied to by Samoan teenagers and reported jokey answers as facts
• evaluation point 2

  HOW it should be dealt with

  cross cultural research should be carried out with indigenous researchers, Eg Buss explored what males and females look for in a romantic partner across 37 cultures, the data was collected by 3 local researchers in each culture
• evaluation point 3

  Universal human behaviours should not be ignored, they do exist. The 7 basic human emotions are the same in all cultures, aspects of attachment such as interactional synchrony are also universal. Studies of human behaviours should look at universals as well as variation
• evaluation point 4

  Globalisation is reducing cultural differences. Takano in 1999 found no difference between Japan and USA in terms of collectivism or individualism, this would mean culture bias is becoming less of a problem