cultural bias

• Hare-Mustin and Marecek found 2 ways that gender could be found to be biased. This can be applied to cultural bias. Alpha bias is assuming there are real, enduring differences between cultures. Eg, the difference assumed between individual/collectivist cultures. For example, we would assume that members of an individualist culture are less conformist as they're less orientated to group norms. This was tested by comparing US and Japan in terms of individualism/collectivism. 14 of the 15 studies didn't support the view in differences. This suggests that the difference, is no longer useful.
• . Beta bias refers to theories that ignore cultural differences. For example, using an IQ test devised by Western psychologists in many cultures. This wont work in every culture as, for example, the Western societies see intelligence as in the individual, whereas some collectivist cultures see it as a functional relationship depending on shared knowledge between individual and society.
• Ethnocentrism is as issue that refers to our own ethnic group being a basis for judgements on other groups. In alpha bias this is for example believing that your own culture is better than others, devaluing them. Beta bias in this case is believing that their view of the world, is the only view.
• Cultural relativism is the idea that all cultures are worthy of respect and when studying another culture, they must be understood properly to get a sense of how they see the world. However, this can lead to an alpha bias, such as overlooking universals based on assumptions, or beta bias such as thinking all symptoms are the same everywhere, such as hearing voices in schizophrenia, when that is a normal cultural experience.
• One way to counter ethnocentricism is to encourage indigenous psychologies. Afrocentrism is a movement whose central proposition is that all black people have their roots in Africa and that psychological theories concerning such people must be African-centred and express African values. Afrocentrism disputes the view that European values are universally appropriate descriptions of human behaviour. It suggests values and culture of Europeans devalue non-European people.This has led to the development of theories relevant to the life and culture of people of African descent.
• Cultural bias in psychology can also be dealt with simply by using studies with samples from different cultural groups. research was surveyed in a European textbook for psychology. They found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European. 82% of research used undergraduates. The researchers calculated that a randomly selected American student was 4,000 times more likely to be a participant in a psychology study than a non- Westerner. This suggests that psychology findings are unrepresentative on a global scale.
• A real danger of culturally biased research is that it helps to create or reinforce stereotypes. Such as a cultural bias was the US Army IQ test, used just before the First World War. The tests showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ, and African Americans were at the bottom of the scale with the lowest mental age. The data from these tests had a profound effect on the attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people. Therefore the consequence was enduring stereotypes concerning certain ethnic groups and their IQ.
• Researchers in psychology, travel much more now than they did 50 years ago. This means they have an increased understanding of other cultures at a personal level but also at a professional level. Academics hold international conferences where researchers from many different countries and cultures regularly meet to discuss and exchange ideas. In fact this is how David Buss found his researchers in 37 different cultures. This means there is a much greater exchange of ideas, which should reduce ethnocentricism in psychology, enable an understanding of cultural relativism.