Issues - culture in psych

• Define culture 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.
• example of culture bias in Psych

  Social influence research into conformity and obedience were conducted in the US but their conclusions were then generalised universally. However, 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.
• Define ethnocentrism (a type of culture bias)

  Ethnocentrism is a type of culture bias whereby a researcher assumed that their own culture’s behaviours are natural/right. This means that if other cultures differ, they are considered abnormal or perceived negatively. In extreme cases, this can lead to prejudice and discrimination of other culture.
• Example of ethnocentrism in psych.

  Ainsworth’s strange situation research is considered ethnocentric. developed in the US-based on American child-rearing practices. When conducted in other countries, led to those cultures being perceived negatively - infants had higher rates of ‘insecure’ attachment types-
• Real life examples of ethnocentrism in psych.

  German infants had higher rates of insecure-avoidant attachment types led German mothers being labelled as insensitive to their needs-encouraged more independence. Japanese infants had higher rates of insecure-resistant attachment types - led to Japanese mothers being labelled as inconsistent with their care when just rarely separated from their infants.
• 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.
• Example of cultural relativism

  E.g. 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.
• Reducing CB/ETHNO

  CR. the researcher must not judge the behaviour of other cultures based on their own cultural standards - they will need to consider a person’s behaviour as part of their culture before making a judgement. Conduct more cross-cultural research so that psych research is not mainly conducted on White participants from Western countries-helps to ensure that research findings are more generalisable across cultures. conducting research on one culture, make it clear that the conclusions only apply to that culture-prevent people from generalising the results to all cultures
• Discuss culture bias - outline 1

  Culture bias refers to when psychological research does not represent the behaviour of a culture. This could be because the researcher has conducted their research on one culture and then incorrectly assumed that other cultures would behave the same way or very differently. For example, social influence research was typically conducted on white Americans i.e. an individualistic Western culture but the findings were generalised universally.
• Outline - culture bias - example china and japan

  later research found very different conformity and obedience rates in collectivist cultures such as in China and Japan. This suggests that cultural differences were ignored/minimised. Culture bias can therefore occur when researchers ignore/minimise, over-exaggerate or misinterpret cultural differences.
• Discuss culture bias - ethnocentrism

  Another example of culture bias in Psychology is ethnocentrism – whereby a researcher assumes that their own culture’s behaviour are ‘natural/right’. This means that if other cultures differ, they are regarded as abnormal or perceived in a negative light. In extreme cases, this can lead to prejudice and discrimination of other cultures.
• limitation of culture bias is that it has resulted in negative applications when it comes to diagnosing disorders.

  people of Afro-Caribbean descent are 7x more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia in Britain-more likely to report hearing voices which is seen as an auditory hallucination. limitation-people of Afro-Caribbean descent have a cultural belief in communication with ancestors and so they are being misdiagnosed with schizophrenia-this leads them to being labelled as mentally unwell-affects their quality of life and job prospects. highlightas issue of culture bias.