cultural bias

• define ethnocentrism

  evaluation of other cultures according to customs and standards of ones own culture, leading to bias where the own culture is viewed as superior
• cultural relativism

  idea that norms, values and behaviours are culturally specific and not necessarily universal, involves evaluation in the context of culture in which they occur
• example of cultural relativism

  milgram's study into obedience was originally conducted using over 40 american male participants, but was also replicated using spanish students (miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in spanish students) and australian students (only 16% of female participants continued to the highest voltage setting, as shown by kilham and mann). this suggests milligram's original results were specifically bound to american culture
• alpha bias

  cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals
• beta bias

  cultural relativism is discussed in the context of defining mental disorders. behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another e.g. schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices but is more common in african cultures where hearing voices is a sign of spirituality. assuming the rules are the same universally there's potential to diagnose some people as mentally ill, but relative to their culture they may not be
• alpha bias in cross cultural research

  refers to the assumption there are differences between cultural groups. the distinction is often made between individualistic and collectivist cultures. it would be expected that individualistic cultures are less conformist as they are more orientated towards the individual e.g. takano and osaka reviewed 15 studies comparing the usa and japan in terms of collectivist/individualism and found that 14 out of 15 studies didn't support the common view about differences in conformity. suggests there is less of a collectivist/individualist divide.
• beta bias in cross cultural research

  theories minimising cultural differences assume universal applicability, leading to the use of tools like iq tests globally based on western views of intelligence. in collectivist cultures, intelligence is viewed as a relationship between individuals and society, potentially making non-western individuals seem less intelligent on such tests. this "imposed etic" approach applies tools designed in one culture to others, emphasising universal behaviours over cultural specifics.
• indigenous psychologies


  a method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories into different countries
• ethnocentrism example

  ainsworths' strange situation is culturally relative due to suggesting that secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety. german mothers whose children showed little separation and stranger anxiety were deemed cold and rejecting, being insecure avoidant according to ainsworth's system
• the emic-etic distinction

  emic approach emphasises distinctions of uniqueness in every culture but the problem of this is that findings are only significant for that culture. etic approach seeks universal aspects of behaviour, one way to do this whilst avoiding culture bias to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting
• bias in research methods

  smith and bond surveyed research in a european textbook and found 66% of the studies were american, 32% european and 2% from the rest of the world. a large amount of psychology is based on middle class academic young males suggesting an institutionalised cultural bias in psychology as students learn about universal behaviours that are only demonstrated in certain cultures
• consequences of cultural bias

  us army iq tests shows european immigrants fell slightly below white americans in terms of iq, this data has a profound effect on attitudes held by americans to certain groups of people leading to stereotyping and discrimination
• not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias

  there may be differences in rates of obedience and conformity between collectivist/eastern and individual/western cultures, but universal behaviour still exist. e.g. ekman et al. demonstrated facial expressions for anger, guilt and disgust were universally recognised across all cultures, in terms of attachment interactional synchrony and reciprocity are a universal feature of infant/caregiver interactions. to fully understand behaviour universal and culture-bound examples need to be looked at