culture

• Cultural bias in psychology refers to the tendency to interpret behavior through the lens of one’s own cultural framework, often imposing Western norms on non-Western populations. A key example is Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, which assumes that secure attachment, as defined in Western cultures, is universally ideal. This methodology neglects cultural differences in child-rearing practices, such as the emphasis on interdependence in collectivist cultures like Japan, where behaviors classified as "insecure-resistant" may instead reflect cultural norms
• Such ethnocentrism undermines the validity of psychological theories, as they may fail to capture the experiences of diverse populations. Efforts to address cultural bias include the use of culturally relative approaches, such as Berry’s concept of imposed etic and emic perspectives, which encourage researchers to understand behavior within its cultural context.
• However, while these approaches are valuable, practical challenges remain, such as balancing cultural sensitivity with the need for universal principles. Addressing cultural bias requires ongoing vigilance and adaptation to ensure psychological research reflects global diversity.
• emic

  Researching a culture from within to understand that culture specifically (and not applying the findings to other cultures).
• etic

  Conducting research from an outside perspective to discover universal truths about human psychology 
• ethnocentrism

   A perspective where the behaviours of a certain ethnicity or culture are seen as the default and normal. As such, any behaviour that deviates from the norms of that culture may be seen as abnormal.
• universtality

  The aim to develop theories that apply to all people, which may include real differences. This describes any underlying characteristic of human behaviour which can be applied to all individuals, regardless of their differences
• cultural relativism

  – The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.
• indiginous psychologies

  A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories in different countries.
• example of ethnocentrism

  Ainsworth’s Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety. Therefore, German mothers, whose children showed little separation and stranger anxiety (thus being insecure-avoidant according to Ainsworth’s system), were deemed as cold and rejecting
• beta bias (culture)

  Refers to theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences, They do this by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories for different cultural groups. An example is IQ tests. Psychologists use IQ tests to study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures.
• alpha bias (culture)

  With regards to culture refers to the assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. An example is the distinction that is often made between individualistic and collectivist cultures. We would expect individualistic cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated towards group norms and value the needs of the group over the individual.
• The emic-etic distinction — Emic approach is one that emphasises the distinction of uniqueness in every culture, problem with this is that findings are only significant for that culture. The “etic” approach seeks universal aspects of behaviour - one way to do this whilst still avoiding cultural bias is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting.
• Culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects by, for example, amplifying and validating damaging stereotypes. 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, which highlights the negative impact that culturally biased research can have.
• One way to deal with cultural bias is to recognise it when it occurs Smith and Bond found in their 1998 survey of European textbooks on social psychology, that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and only 2% from the rest of the worldThis suggests that psychological research is severely unrepresentative and can be greatly improved by simply selecting different cultural groups to study.Therefore, just by appreciating and understanding cultural bias can help psychologists to avoid and overcome this issue
• A related concept is cultural relativism, which argues that behavior can only be understood within its cultural context. Problems arise when researchers use tools developed in one culture and apply them universally — this is called an imposed etic. For example, intelligence tests developed in the West may emphasize speed and logic, which do not reflect the values of all cultures (e.g., cooperation, wisdom, or spiritual knowledge in non-Western societies).
• However, the issue of culture bias still persists in modern research. For example, Henrich et al. (2010) found that 95% of psychological samples came from WEIRD populations (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic), which make up only about 12% of the world’s population. This lack of diversity threatens the population validity of many findings, especially when generalizing to non-Western cultures.