Cultural bias

• culture bias is carrying out research in one culture then applying findings and generalising to other cultures, judgement based on own cultural assumptions
• different cultures misrepresented as abnormal or inferior
• consequence of culture bias has lessened understanding of human nature universally
• cultural relativism is idea that cultural morals and standards cannot be judged properly unless within the same cultural context
• research carried out in one culture cannot be universally applied to all cultures meaningfully
• etic approach is when behavior is studied outside the culture and findings are applied and generalised to other cultures
• imposed etic is a test or procedure developed in one culture and used in all cultures even though it isnt relevant such as mary ainsworth strange situation
• emic approach is when behavior is studied within a culture and findings are only considered relevant and significant to that culture only
• extreme emic approach psychologists believe biology isnt universal
• ethnocentrism is evaluating other groups by our culture and standards, assuming our culture as superior leading to prejudice
• e.g. of ethnocentrism in Mary Ainsworth strange situation, carried out in US with American pp, claimed secure attached was ideal. child-rearing practices in other cultures presented as inferior as children of other countries were more insecurely attached. considering cultural variations found Japanese children were insecure attached as they were rarely seperated from caregiver and showed distress
• strength is that cross-cultural research challenges dominant individualistic western way of thinking about human behavior, shows when behavior is socially constructed instead of biologically, gives us better understanding of differences in behavior of cultures
• another strength is emergence of cultural psychology as area of study, how people are shaped socially by cultural experience, cultural psychologists take emic approach and culturally relativism research with local researchers and techniques , suggests psychology is aware of culture bias
• weakness is that many influential studies are culturally biased, Asch and Milgram were conducted in US with American, white, middle class. later replications found different results like increase conformity and obedience in collectivist cultures
• how to counter ethnocentrisim

  indigenous psychologist, use local resources and psychology to produce theories
• what term did henry develop and define it

  WEIRD. Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised, Rich Democracies
• what is the basis WEIRD for?

  the norm and standard in research