Culture Bias

• Cultural Bias

  A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the 'lens' of one's own culture, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour.
• Ethnocentrism

  Ethnocentrism refers to a particular form of cultural bias and is a belief in the superiority of ones own cultural group. The position described above suggests that people from America and Europe have presented an ethnocentric view of human behaviour. Ainsworth and Bell's Strange Situation is an example of this, criticised: as reflecting only the norms and values of American culture.
• Ethnocentrism 2

  They conducted research on attachment type, suggesting that 'ideal' attachment was characterised by the babies showing moderate amounts of distress when left alone by their mother-figure (typical of secure attachment). However, this led to misinterpretation of child-rearing practices in other countries which were seen to deviate from the American 'norm.
• Ethnocentrism 3

  For example Japan's infants were much more likely to be classed as insecurely attached because they showed considerable distress on separation (Takahashi). It is likely that this finding was due to the fact that Japanese babies are rarely separated from their mother.
• Cultural Relativism

  Berry has drawn a distinction between etic and emic approaches in the study of human behaviour. An etic approach looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal. An emic approach functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture.
• Cultural Relativism 2

  Ainsworth and Bell's research is an example of an imposed etic - they studied behaviour inside one culture (America) and then assumed their ideal attachment type (and the method for assessing it) could be applied universally. Another example of an imposed etic can be considered in relation to how we define abnormality.
• Cultural Relativism 3

  Berry argues that psychology has often been guilly of an imposed etic approach - arguing that theories, models, concepts, etc, are universal, when they actually came about through emic research inside a single culture. The suggestion is that psychologists should be much more mindful of the cultural relativism of their research - that the 'things' they discover may only make sense from the perspective of the culture within which they were discovered and being able to recognise this is one way of avoiding cultural bias in research.
• Ethnocentrism

  Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture. In its extreme form it is the belief in the superiority of one's own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures.
• Cultural Relativism

  The idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.