cultural bias L2

• what is cultural bias?

  is the tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions
• what is an alpha bias?

  is when a theory assumes that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups
• give an example of alpha bias

  assuming that people from individualistic cultures are less conformist.
• what is a beta bias?

  is when a theory ignores or minimises cultural differences, by assuming that all people are the same
• give an example of beta bias

  using Western intelligence (IQ) tests in other cultures gives biased results
• what is ethnocentrism?

  • Judging behaviour from your own cultural point of view and seeing your own beliefs, customs, and behaviours as ‘normal’.
  • This is alpha bias, as other cultures’ norms are devalued compared to the norms of the dominant culture
• What is cultural relativism?

  • the idea that we should study behaviour in the context of the culture in which it originates, However, cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias.
  • For example, Mead's (1935) research concluded that there were significant gender differences due to culture, when in fact there weren’t.
• A03: Indigenous psychologies can counter ethnocentricity...

  • Indigenous psychologies – the development of different groups of theories in different countries.
  • For example, Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in Africa and that psychological theories concerning such people must, therefore, be African-centred and express African values.
  • It suggests that the values and culture of Europeans at worst devalue non-European people, and at best are irrelevant to the life and culture of people of African descent.
• A03: The emic-etic distinction...

  • An 'emic' approach emphasises the uniqueness of every culture by focusing on culturally specific phenomena. The problem with such approaches is that the findings tend to be significant only to the understanding of behaviour within that culture.On the other hand, an 'etic' approach can use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting to find universal behaviours. For example, Buss's (1989) study of mate preference used local researchers in 37 countries.This kind of approach allows researchers to investigate universal behaviour, while avoiding cultural bias.
• A03: Culturally biased research helps to create or reinforce stereotypes...

  • The US army used IQ test before WW1 which was culturally biased.
  • The test showed that Africa Americans were at the bottom of the scale in terms of IQ.
  • The data from this test had a profound effect on the attitudes held by Americans towards other groups of people, highlighting the danger of culturally biased research.