Cultural Bias

• Cultural Bias


  - interpreting all phenomena through the lens of one's own culture ignoring the effect cultural differences may have on behaviour
• Ethnocentrism


  - judging behaviour in other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture

  
  

  - can take an extreme form; belief that one's own culture is superior to others leading to prejudice and discrimination
• Cultural Relativism


  - the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

  
  

  - norms, values and moral standards can only be understood within specific social and cultural contexts
• Etic Approach


  - studying a culture's behaviour as an outsider and universally generalising results
• Emic Approach


  - studying a culture's behaviour as an insider (someone within the culture) and identifying specific cultural behaviours
• Cultural Alpha Bias


  - the emphasis or over exaggeration of differences between cultures

  
  

  - this can lead to research highlighting cultural differences in order to argue that some are superior to others - perhaps even for genetic reasons. ​
• Cultural Beta Bias


  - the minimisation or refusal to acknowledge differences between cultures.
• Classic Studies: Limitation


  - many of the most influential studies in psychology are culturally biased

  
  

  - e.g. Milgram and Asch's participants were exclusively white, middle-class Americans

  
  

  - replications of these experiments in different cultures showed different results e.g. in Asch like experiments conformity was higher (Smith & Bond, 1993)

  
  

  - results in social influence studies can only be generalised to similar cultures (individualist)
• Classic Studies: Counterpoint


  - globalisation may have rendered the individualist-collectivist distinction a moot point

  
  

  - (Takano & Osaka, 1999) found in 14 out of 15 studies comparing the US and Japan found no evidence of collectivism or individualism

  
  

  - this means cultural bias may be less of an issue in more recent psychological research
• Cultural Psychology: Strength


  - cultural psychology is an emerging field which studies how people are shaped by their cultural experience

  
  

  - cultural psychologists conduct work alongside local psychologists to avoid ethnocentric assumptions; often using culturally-based techniques

  
  

  - work from other disciplines such as sociology, political science and anthropology are also used

  
  

  - this suggests that modern psychologists are becoming mindful of the dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it
• Ethnic Stereotyping: Limitation


  - cultural bias can lead to prejudice against groups of people

  
  

  - the first intelligence test were used to legitimise eugenic social policies (Gould, 1981)

  
  

  - many of the items on the test were ethnocentric e.g. names of presidents which disadvantaged south-eastern Europe and African-Americans

  
  

  - their performance on the test wasn't seen as a sign of its inadequacy but was used to support racist ideologies that those from certain cultural and ethnic groups were inferior

  
  

  - ethnic minorities were denied education and professional opportunities due as a result
• Relativism vs Universality: Strength

  - cross-cultural research can challenge individualist way of thinking and viewing the world

  
  

  - viewing certain knowledge and concepts as social rather than innate may provide a better understanding of human nature
• Relativism vs Universality: Counterpoint

  - some human behaviour is universal e.g. facial expressions for emotions are the same throughout the world regardless of culture

  
  

  - features of attachment such as imitation and interactional synchrony are also the same