Cultural Bias

• What is cultural bias?

  A tendency to interpret through one's own culture
• What did Henrich et al (2010) find about research participants?

  68% were from the US, 96% from industrialised nations
• What does the mnemonic WEIRD stand for in psychology?

  • Westernised
  • Educated from
  • Industrialised
  • Rich
  • Democracies
• How does the norm set by WEIRD people affect non-WEIRD people?

  Non-WEIRD behavior is seen as abnormal
• What is ethnocentrism?

  Judging other cultures by one's own standards
• How was Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation' criticized?

  It reflects only Western cultural norms
• What is cultural relativism?

  Understanding norms within specific cultural contexts
• What distinction did Berry (1969) make in cultural psychology?

  Between etic and emic approaches
• What do etic approaches focus on?

  Behavior from outside a given culture
• How did Ainsworth's 'Strange Situation' exemplify etic approaches?

  It assumed attachment types are universal
• What do emic approaches focus on?

  Behaviors specific to a culture
• What is cultural psychology according to Cohen (2017)?

  • Study of how culture shapes individuals
  • Strives to avoid ethnocentric assumptions
  • Uses emic approaches for research
• What is the counterpoint regarding cultural bias in modern research?

  Individualistic-collectivist distinction may not apply
• What did Takano & Osaka (1999) find in their study?

  No evidence of individualism or collectivism
• What are the implications of classic studies being culturally biased?

  • Influential studies like Asch's and Milgram's used US participants
  • Replications in other countries showed different results
  • Understanding of social influence may be limited to individualistic cultures
• What did Gould (1981) explain about early intelligence tests?

  They led to eugenic social policies in the US
• How were early intelligence tests ethnocentric?

  Items reflected biases against certain demographics
• How can cultural bias justify prejudice and discrimination?

  By portraying certain groups as inferior
• What is a strength for Cultural Bias?

  Cultural Psychology

  • According to Cohen (2017), cultural psychology is the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience
  • Cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research from inside a culture
  • This suggests that modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it
• What is a strength for Cultural Bias?

  Lack of Distinction

  • In an age of increased media globalisation, it is argued that the individualistic-collectivist distinction no longer applies
  • Takano & Osaka (1999) found that 14/15 studied that compared the US and Japan found no evidence of individualism or collectivism
  • This suggests that cultural bias in research may be less of an issue in more recent psychological research
• What is a limitation for Cultural Bias?

  Classic Studies

  • Many of the most influential studies in psychology are culturally-biased, for example, Asch’s and Milgram’s study were conducted with exclusively  US participants
  • Replications of these studies in different countries produced rather different results
  • This suggests our understanding of topics such as social influence should only be applied to individualistic cultures
• What is a limitation for Cultural Bias?

  Ethnic Stereotyping

  • Gould (1981) explained how the first intelligence tests led to eugenic social policies in the US and psychologists used the opportunity of WWI to pilot their first IQ tests on army recruits
  • Many items on the test were ethnocentric, and resulted in the poor performance of demographics being used to fuel racist discourse about the genetic inferiority of particular cultural and ethnic groups
  • This illustrates how cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination towards certain cultural and ethnic groups