A03

• What are the strengths of culture bias?

  1. Cultural relativism leads to awareness
  2. The worldwide psychology community
• What are the limitations of culture bias?

  1. Indigenous psychologies
  2. Social implications of cultural bias
• Strength = cultural relativism leads to awareness

  • Emic approaches help to challenge the typical Western ways of thinking
  • May help to raise awareness and sensitivity towards cultural differences which could result in reduced discrimination as people become more understanding
  • E.g. Ainsworth’s imposed etic of the Strange Situation led to Van Ijzendoorn’s more emic study into cultural differences
  • This improved knowledge of how different culture’s child rearing practices effect attachment behaviours of infants in different ways
• Strength = the worldwide psychology community

  • Researchers in psychology travel much more now than they did 50 years ago
  • Contemporary psychologists are significantly more open-minded and well-travelled than previously
  • This means they have an increased understanding of other cultures
  • Academics hold international conferences where researchers from many different countries and cultures regularly meet to discuss and exchange ideas
  • The greater exchange of ideas should reduce ethnocentrism in psychology and enable a better appreciation of cultural relativism
• Limitation = indigenous psychologies

  • One way to counter ethnocentrism in psychology is encouraging indigenous psychologies
  • E.g. Afrocentrism = movement which proposes that all black people have their roots in Africa and that psychological theories concerning them must be African-centred and express African values
  • Afrocentrism disputes view that European values are universally appropriate descriptions of behaviour
  • But it shouldn’t be assumed all psychology is culturally relative - Ainsworth = some features of attachment are universal
• Limitation = social implications of cultural bias

  • Culturally biased research helps to reinforce stereotypes
  • E.g. the US Army IQ test used just before the First World War showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ and African Americans were at the bottom of the scale with the lowest mental age
  • This had a profound effect on the negative attitudes held by Americans towards this group of people