Cultural bias

• Cultural bias is a tendency to interpret all phenomena through the ‘lens’ of one's own culture. It ignores the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour
• Henrich et al. proposed the term WEIRD to describe people most likely to be studied by psychologists - Westernised,Educated people from Industrialised,Rich democracies. If people deviated from this they were seen as abnormal and unusual. 
• Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture. This can lead to discrimination of other cultures.
• EXAMPLE: Ainsworth and Bell’s Strange Situation is an example of this. It is criticised for reflecting the norms and values of American culture. It suggested that the ideal attachment type was characterised by babies displaying a moderate amount of separation and stranger anxiety. Suggesting that secure attachment was the most healthy. This led to misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries which deviated from American norms for example Japanese babies were more likely to be classed as insecure resistant.
• cultural relativism is the idea that norms and behaviours of a particular culture can only be understood within the specific cultural context. 

  ETIC - looks at behaviour from outside a given culture , attempts to describe those behaviours as universal 

  EMIC- inside a culture, identifies behaviour specific to that culture 
• Many of the most influential studies in psychology are culturally biassed ie. studies on social influence. Both Asch and Milgram’s studies were conducted with US participants. Replications of these studies in different countries produced different results. Asch type experiments in collectivist cultures found higher rates of conformity than original studies in individualist cultures. 

  Understanding of social influence should only be applied to individualist cultures.
• However, it is argued that in an age of increased media globalisation, individualist-collectivist distinction no longer applies. Traditional argument - individualist countries value individuals and independence whilst collectivist cultures value society and the needs of the group. 

  Takano and Osaka found that 14 out of 15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no evidence of individualism or collectivism.

  Suggests cultural bias may be less of an issue. 
•  According to Cohen, cultural psychology is the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience. This incorporates work from researchers in other disciplines like sociology and political science. Cultural psychologists aim to avoid ethnocentrism by using emic approaches and conducting research inside a culture. Cross cultural research focuses on just two cultures instead of larger scale studies. 

  Modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it.
• A benefit of conducting cross cultural research is that it may challenge dominant individualist thoughts + views. Being able to see that some of the concepts we take for granted are not hardwired may provide better understanding of human nature. It should not be assumed that all psychology is culturally relative and that there is not such thing as universal behaviour. Research suggests that basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the human world. Criticisms of attachment research should not obscure the fact that some features of human attachment are universal.