Culture in Psychology

• Define cultural universality.

  The idea that there are behaviours that occur across cultures due to the same explanation. E.g. facial expressions for emotions such as happiness and sadness are the same in all cultures.
• Explain what is meant by culture bias.

  Culture bias refers to when research does not represent the behaviour of one culture. This lead to the behaviour of that culture to be misrepresented.

  This can occur when cultural differences are minimised/ignored, over-exaggerated or misinterpreted.
• Give an example of culture bias in Psychology.

  Research into conformity and obedience were conducted in the US but their conclusions were then generalised universally. It was later found that when the research was replicated in other parts of the world, conformity and obedience rates differed. E.g. conformity and obedience rates were higher in more collectivist cultures such as China and Japan. This suggests that conformity and obedience rates can be influenced by cultural attitudes and so social influence research using American participants does not represent other cultures.
• Give an example of ethnocentrism in Psychology.

  Ainsworth’s strange situation research is considered ethnocentric. This is because it was based on American child-rearing practices. When this research was conducted in other countries, it led to those cultures being perceived negatively. E.g. German infants had higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachment types and that led to German mothers being labelled as insensitive to their needs when in reality they just encourage more independence.
• Explain what is meant by cultural relativism.

  Cultural relativism refers to when a researcher must not judge the behaviour of other cultures based on their own cultural standards. This means they will need to consider a person’s behaviour as part of their culture before making a judgement, as what may be considered abnormal to a researcher may be considered normal within that person’s culture. As a result, there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ behaviour.
• Give an example of cultural relativism.

  It is important to consider cultural relativism when diagnosing schizophrenia. This is because people of Afro-Caribbean descent consider hearing voices as a sign of communication with ancestors whereas British psychiatrists would consider this an auditory hallucination i.e. a symptom of schizophrenia. This could result in British Psychiatrists incorrectly diagnosing individuals from this culture with schizophrenia if they do not consider their cultural norms.
• Identify a way of reducing cultural bias.

  Consider cultural relativism i.e. the researcher must not judge the behaviour of other cultures based on their own cultural standards. Instead, they will need to consider a person’s behaviour as part of their culture before making a judgement.
• Identify a way of reducing cultural bias.

  Conduct more cross-cultural research so that psychological research is not mainly conducted on White participants from Western countries. This will help to ensure that research findings are more generalisable across cultures.
• Identify a way of reducing cultural bias.

  If conducting research on one culture, make it clear that the conclusions only apply to that culture. This will prevent people from generalising the results to all cultures i.e. incorrectly assuming the other cultures would behave the same way.
• Evaluate cultural bias: negative applications when it comes to diagnosing disorders. 


  People of Afro-Caribbean descent are 7x more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia in Britain. This is because they are more likely to report hearing voices which is seen as an auditory hallucination. This is a limitation because people of Afro-Caribbean descent have a cultural belief in communication with ancestors and so they are being misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. In turn, this leads them to being labelled as mentally unwell and this can affect their quality of life and job prospects.
• Evaluate cultural bias: resulted in changes to try and reduce it. 


  Researchers are now encouraged to conduct more cross cultural research and consider cultural relativism. When using a sample from one culture, they also make it clear that their conclusions only apply to the culture studied. This is a strength because more cross-cultural research has helped researchers to stop minimising or exaggerated cultural differences. Meanwhile, considering cultural relativism has ensured that researchers consider a person’s behaviour as part of their culture before making a judgement.
• Evaluate cultural bias in Psychology: remains an issue in Psychology.


  For example, most of the psychological research being taught in classrooms today still comes from studies that involved investigating white, western populations. Indeed, one study found that 94% of the studies cited in Social Psychology textbooks were conducted in the US. This is a limitation because such a statistic suggests that psychology is still mainly the study of white Americans, which may not represent the behaviour of those in other cultures.