something to consider when looking at contributions made to understanding behaviour
can be from perspective of who conducts research/how research is conducted/who it applies to
define culture?
all knowledge & values shared by a society
may differ from one another in many ways so that findings of psychological research conducted in 1 culture may not directlyapply to another
define culture bias?
tendency to ignore cultural differences & interpret all behaviour & theories through 1 culture
culture bias in diagnosis of sz?
luhrman et al 2015 interviewed 60 adults diagnosed with sz - 20 each in ghana/india/usa
each asked about voices they heard
many african & indians reported positive experiences with their voices - playful/offering advice
usa reported voices as violent/hateful - may not be inevitable feature of sz
shows sz had lack of consistent characteristics & western countries are biased towards treating hallucinations as symptom of sz when in non western seen as sign of spirituality
define ethnocentrism?
seeing world from ones own cultural perspective & believing that this 1 perspective is normal & correct - use as standard
imposed etic?
using ones cultures views & norms as standard to compare others to
leads to assumption that 1 ethnic group is superior to another/to all other ethnic groups
1 ethnic group is normal & others that do not display same behaviour are abnormal/deficient
emic construct?
theory/explanation that is applied to only 1 cultural group so they vary from place to place - differences between cultures
emic approach?
refers to investigation of a culture from within culture itself
more likely to have ecological validity as findings are less likely to be distorted/caused by mismatch between cultures/researchers & cultures being investigated
ethnocentrism in obedience?
milgrams research into obedience found that 65% of americans would deliver maximum shocks to learner just because they received orders from legitimate authority
this american finding has been used as universal standard of dangerous obedience since 1960s
dolinski et al 2015 found 90% of polish p shocked to highest level possible
unfairly labels polish as even more obedient than rest of world
ethnocentric as it uses milgrams american findings as standard to compare everyone else to
define cultural relativism?
idea that theres no global right/wrong
its important to consider behaviour of individual within their culture before making judgements
context is vital!!
social norms are culturally relative as what is considered to be normal in 1 culture may differ from another
cultural relativism in attachment?
van ijzendoorn & kroonenbergs meta analysis found that japanese studies showed higher rate of insecure resistant attachment types than other cultures
rothbaum investigated why this was happening & so went to interview japanese mothers about findings
argued that they wanted child to be extremely upset when mum left room & upset when stranger interacted with them
concept of amae - child is totally dependent on pcg & cannot survive alone
worse by fact mum have 2 years paid mat leave so child used in ss not used to mum leaving/left with stranger
what did rothbaums investigation show?
took time to understand concept of amae - adopted emic approach
means he utilised knowledge of cultural differences to understand why japanese children appeared more resistant
allowed him to investigate genuine differences in attachment styles without childrearing practices impacting findings
define universality?
belief that some behaviours are same for all cultures
this is when study/theory can be applied across all cultures
universality in attachment?
van ijendoorn & kroonenbergs meta analysis dd uncover some genuine culturaldifferences in atttachment types
notably in japan & germany & israel where insecure attachments were higher than other countries
consistent findings in each culture was that secure attachment type was most common in each culture
supoports bowlbys monotropic theory of attachment that secure attachments are an evolvedbehaviour
X consequence of socially sensitive conclusions?
studies/theories which are ethnocentric can often lead to conclusions which may label/stereotype 1 culture as abnormal/inferior
eg shown in vi & k meta analysis in att has meant that japanese & german mums be labelled as inferior as incidence of insecure att is higher than in uk/usa studies
important as it means that certain cultures could be offended/upset by this research
may result in people from certain cultures being discriminated against
prevents people taking part in future research & impact rep of psych as scientific discipline
* development of indigenous psychologies - fix?
theories drawing from experiences of people in diff cultures
afrocentrism - movement that suggests as all black ppl have roots in africa theories about them must recognise african contexts of behaviours & attitudes - emic approach - emphasises uniqueness of every culture
important - led to development of theories relevant to lives & cultures of people in africa as well as those who are now removed from african origins
minimises risk of inaccurate findings being published & socially sensitive claims being published - lead to discrimination
* inclusion of culture bound syndromes in classification - fix?
early versions of DSM did not include disorders that are found exclusively in non american cultures
dsm 4 did include appendix on certain culture bound syndromes that appear in other parts of world
important as it helps reduce culture bias & prevent certain cultures from being ignored by mental health literature HOWEVER
has been criticised as "little more than an enticement thrown to cultural psychiatrists" - so short & doesnt include many disorders found in certain cultures - brainfag in west africa