Cultural Bias

• Culture

  The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people
• Cultural bias

  The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions, which distorts or biases your judgements
• 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
• Example of Cultural Relativism

  • Milgram's study into obedience was originally conducted using 40 male American participants, but then also replicated using Spanish students (Miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in Spanish students) and Australian students (where only 16% of female participants continued to the highest voltage setting, as shown by Kilham and Mann). This suggests that Milgram's original results were specifically bound to American cultures.
• Alpha bias

  Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals
• Beta bias

  Cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental disorder. Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another, i.e. schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices but this experience is more common in African cultures, where hearing voices is a sign of spirituality and so individuals are more likely to openly report these experiences to their psychiatrist. By assuming the same rules universally we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but relative to the culture they may not be.
• Alpha bias refers to the assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups
• Beta bias refers to theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories for different cultural groups
• Example of Alpha Bias

  • 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. However, Takano and Osaka reviewed 15 studies that compared the US and Japan in terms of collectivist/individualism and found that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in conformity.
• Example of Beta Bias

  • 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. However this may not always be the case. Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual whereas in a collectivist culture intelligence is a functional relationship depending on shared information between the individual and society. The result is that non-western people may appear less intelligent.
• Ethnocentrism


  Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group, evaluating other groups of people using the standards and customs of one's own culture. In its extreme form, ethnocentrism can lead to prejudice and discrimination against 'lesser' cultures.
• 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.
• Emic approach

  Emphasises the distinction of uniqueness in every culture, but the problem is that findings are only significant for that culture
• 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