Cultural variation:

• X

  • Many of the most influential studies in psychology are culturally-biased
  • Cultural bias is a feature of many studies of social influence
  • IE Asch's and Milgram's OG studies were conducted exclusively with US pp- most whom were white middle-class
  • Replications of these studies in different countries produced different results
  • IE Asch-type experiments in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of conformity than the OG studies in the US an individualist culture Smith and Bond

  Understanding of topics such as social influence should only be applied to individualist cultures
• COUNTERPOINT:

  • In an age of increased media globalisation, it is argued that the individualist-collectivist distinction no longer applies
  • The traditional argument is that individualist countries (ie US) value independence, whilst collectivist cultures/countries, such as India value society and the needs of the group.
  • However, Osaka et al found that 14/15 studies that compared the US and Japan found no evidence of individualism or collectivism - describing the distinction as lazy and simplistic

  Cultural bias in research may be less of an issue in more recent psychological research
• +

  • emergence of cultural psychology
  • Cultural psychology is according to Cohen the study of how people shape and are shaped by their cultural experience
  • An emerging field incorporating work from researchers in other disciplines ie sociology
  • Strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research from inside a culture often alongside local researchers
  • Cross-cultural research tends to focus on just 2 cultures instead of larger scale studies with maybe 8+ cultures

  That modern psychologists are mindful of the of cultural bias and taking steps to avoid it