Culture bias

• What is culture bias

  The tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of ones own culture, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on our behaviour
• in 1992, what percentage of psychologists were American

  64% of 5400 psychologists
• Example of culturally bias research

  Social Influence - Asch and Milgram
• Define Ethnocentrism

  The tendency to view and judge other cultures through the lens of ones own culture, assuming that ones own culture is superior
• what does the term “WEIRD” stand for

  Westernised

  Educated people from

  Industrialised

  Rich

  Democracies
• What is ‘WEIRD’ people

  • Describes the group of people most likely to be studied by psychologists
  • if the norm or standard of a particular behaviour is set by WEIRD people, the the behaviour of people from non-western, less educated and poorer counties is seen as abnormal, inferior or unusual
• Problem with opportunity sampling

  If you use opportunity sampling you are more likely to get WEIRD people who volunteer
• Define Etic

  Approach that looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
• Define Emic

  Approach that functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture
• Example of imposed etic

  Ainsworth- studied behaviour inside one culture (American) and assumed their ideal attachment type (and method for assessing it) could be applied universally
• How to reduce gender bias in research

  • researchers need to discuss in their research if its based in one culture, they need to acknowledge that it will not be universal to all other cultures, and their own culture may be influencing their view and interpretations
  • use indigenous psychologists in the culture wanting to be studied
  • don’t attempt to extrapolate to other countries
  • be sensitive to cultural norms / standards when designing research
  • take an emic approach