cultural bias

• culture


  the rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members or society

  bias: the tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions
• cultural relatism


  the idea that people cannot view behaviours/morals unless they’re viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate

  leads to alpha bias

  milgram: his results were found to be culture bound to american culture- spain=90% obedience

  Australia=19% female obedience
• alpha cultural bias


  there is a real and enduring difference between cultures

  expect individualistic cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated to group norms and needs compared to themself

  studies found 14/15 studies in US and japan didn’t support the view of differences in conformity-less of a collectivistic and individualistic cultural divide in the world
• beta cultural bias


  theories minimising and ignoring cultural differences

  eg iq: western cultures have generalised iq tests and the view of intelligence. other cultures view intelligence as a functional relationship between info shared in a society, therefore non-western people may appear less intelligent
• ethnocentrism


  we evaluate things based on ourselves and our social group

  we may be prejudiced to “lesser“ cultures
• indigenous psychology 


  a method of countering ethnocentrism, by using different theories for each country: etic-emic approach=

  • using indigenous researchers for their cultural setting (etic approach)
  • findings from studies should only be used in that country (emic approach)
• not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias (-)

  • some universal behaviours
  • interactional synchrony and reciprocy are universal features of caregiver interactions with infants- need to use universal and cultural interactions
  • facial expressions are universally recognised
• worldwide psychology (+) 


  • not all cultures are familiar with traditional methods of investigation- bias results
  • academics meet to discuss findings which reduces ethnocentrism
  • researchers are now able to travel more and conduct world-wide research
• bias in research methods (-)

  • smith and bond studied psychology textbooks in europe
  • large amount based on white, middle class young males
  • 66% american studies, 32% european studies and 2% rest of the world
  • shows unconditional bias in psychology
• consequences of cultural bias (-)

  • US army iq test showed european immigrants fell slightly below white americans
  • lead to a profound effect of americans holding attitudes towards certain groups, leading to discrimination and stereotyping