Cultural bias

• What is cultural bias?

  The tendency to interpret behaviours or beliefs through the lens of one’s own cultural norms. Can lead to misinterpretations when studying individuals from different cultures
• what did Heinrich et all find after reviewing may research?

  • 68% from USA
  • 96% from industrialised nations
• what did the term WEIRD describe?

  the group of people Likely to be studied.

  westernised, educated, industrialised, rich, democracies
• what is ethnocentrism?

  the belief in the superiority of ones own culture which may lead to prejudice towards other cultures
• example of ethnocentrism

  • strange situation
  • ideal attachment- moderate distress when mother leaves
  • however, Japanese infants more likely ot be distresses as rarely separated from mothers
• what is cultural relativism?

  norms, values and standards of behaviour can only be understood within the specific cultural context in which they occur
• what did berry 1969 come up with?

  emic and etic approach
• what is the etic approach?

  looks at behaviour from outside of a culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
• whta is the emic approach?

  functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture
• what is an example of imposed etic?

  strange situation studied behaviour in one culture and assumed findings could be applied universally
• outline 2 limitations of ethnocentrism

  - can lead to prejudice / discrimination against other ethnic groups

  - findings from one culture cannot be generalised to another culture

  - assumes all members of ethnic groups are the same