culture bias

• What is culture bias?

  The tendency to judge people in terms of one's own cultural assumptions and to ignore cultural differences
• What is culture?

  The values, beliefs and patterns of behaviour shared by a group of people. A variety of factors shape culture and these different factors are reflected in the differences between various cultures.
• Historically what has been the case in psychology?

  Been dominated by white, middle-class American males, who have monopolised psychology both as researchers and participants
• Despite limited samples, what has happened to findings in psychology?

  Research findings and theories have been generalised, as if culture makes no real difference
• What is ethnocentrism?


  Means seeing the world only from one's own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct
• Ethnocentrism results in what?

  Judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture
• What is ethnocentrism in it's extreme form?

  The belief in the superiority of one's own culture
• What is ethnocentrism usually the result of?

  Lack of awareness that other ways of seeing things can be as valid as one's own
• What is cultural relativism?

  Appreciating that behaviour varies between cultures
• What does cultural relativism insist on?

  That behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration
• Therefore, how does cultural relativism view generalising results with a sample from one cultural context?


  Suspect
• What are three discussion points for cultural bias?

  How Culture Bias Happens

  Implications

  Culture Bias Improving
• Who studied cultural bias in research?

  Smith and Bond
• What did Smith and Bond do?

  A 1998 survey of European textbooks on social psychology
• What did Smith and Bond find?

  That 66% of the studies were American, 32% European, and only 2% from the rest of the world
• What does Smith and Bond's research suggest?

  That much psychological research is severely unrepresentative
• Cross-cultural research is criticised for what?

  Imposed etic
• Provide an example of cross-cultural research with imposed etic.

  The Strange Situation
• How is the Strange Situation an example of imposed etic?

  The methodology she uses is based on US views and standards, therefore the judgement of attachment types reflects US practices in child rearing
• What results from the strange situation can be viewed as culturally biased?

  Infants from Japan were judged as being 'resistant' due to the high levels of separation anxiety.
• Why might the Japanese findings from the Strange Situation be culturally biased?

  The practice in Japan is for caregiver and infant to spend all their time together, therefore, this upset displays not a 'resistant' attachment type but, rather a lack of experience being separated from their caregiver
• What did Nobles (1976) argue?

  That western psychology has been a tool of oppression and dominance
• How has western psychology has been a tool of oppression and dominance?

  Culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects by amplifying and validating damaging stereotypes
• Provide an example of how culturally biased research has had significant real-world effects.

  The US Army used an IQ test before WWI which was culturally biased toward the dominant white majority. Unsurprisingly, the test showed that African-Americans were at the bottom of the IQ scale and this had a negative effect on the attitudes of Americans toward this group of people
• How is culture bias improving?

  Contemporary psychologists are more open-minded and well-travelled than before, and have an increased understanding of other cultures at both a personal and professional level
• How are contemporary psychologists able to be more open-minded?

  International conferences increase the exchange of ideas between psychologists which has helped to reduce ethnocentrism and enabled more appreciation of cultural relativism
• What has this heightened awareness of cultural diversity led to?

  The development of 'indigenous psychologies': theories drawing on the particular experiences of people in different cultures
• Provide an example of indigenous psychologies.

  Afrocentrism, a movement which suggests that because all black people have their roots in Africa, theories about them must recognise the African context of behaviours and attitudes