Culture Bias

• • Alpha bias: ethnocentrism is an example of alpha bias because one’s own culture is considered different or better. The consequence is other cultures are devalued. 
  • For example, individualistic attitudes towards attachment where independence is valued and dependence is seen as undesirable. In collectivist cultures, dependence tends to be more highly valued.
• • Beta bias: ethnocentrism can lead to beta bias if psychologists believe their world view is the only view.
  • IQ testing results from ethnocentrism; it was believed to be appropriate to only use American IQ tests all over the world because it was assumed that the American standard was universal.
• Ethnocentric: A type of cultural bias that involves judging other cultures by the standards and values of one's own culture
• Research tradition: The familiarity a certain culture has with taking part in psychological investigations.
• Cultural relativism: The idea that human behaviour can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts.
• Culture bound syndromes: Groups of syndromes classified as treatment illnesses in certain cultures that are not recognised as such in the West
• Emic approach: Studying cultures in isolation by identifying behaviours that are specific to that culture.
• Etic approach: Comparing different cultures using common criteria, which allows cross-cultural comparisons.
• Imposed etic: A test, measure or theory devised in one culture that is used to explain behaviour in another.
• Joseph Heinrich (2010) reviewed hundreds of leading psychology journals. 68% of research participants came from the USA. 96% from industrialised nations.
• WEIRD

  • Westernised
  • Education people
  • from Industrialised
  • Rich
  • Democracies
• John Berry (1969) made the emic/etic distinction within the study of human behaviour. Most theories/models are imposed etic, but they have come about through emic research into a specific culture. Recognising this would reduce culture bias
• Replications of classic studies such as Milgram and Asch, who used white, middle class university students - have found different results. However, in a world of increased globalisation, individualist and collectivist cultures might not be so important anymore. Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14/15 studies comparing US with Japan found no evidence of individualism.
• ALPHA TEST

  • Literate recruits
  • Yerkes believed the test measured native intellectual ability
  • However, the test was culturally biased - 'Washington to Adams as first is to'
• THE BETA TEST

  • For illiterate people, or those who had failed the Alpha test
  • Picture tasks
  • But some of the questions required written answers, and were written in English
• THIRD TEST

  • Literates who failed the Army Alpha and Army Beta.
  • Were given a Performance Test
  • No person reported as feeble minded until an individual examination was conducted
• Gould (1981) - the first intelligence tests led to eugenics policies in the US. South Eastern Europe / African Americans scored lowest. Reinforced and 'justified' discrimination.
• • Cohen (2017): the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experiences
  • Emerging fields like anthropology, sociology and political science
  • Cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research from inside a culture
• • Cross-cultural research challenges dominant individualist ways of thinking and viewing the world
  • However, not all psychology is culturally relative, there is such a thing as universal behaviour
  • E.g. facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the human and animal world (Ekman 1989)