Culture bias

• Culture bias is prevalent in the sense that 94 % of research is American.

  It occurs in the form of ethnocentrism which is where other cultures are held to the standard of our own culture whereby our own culture is superior which leads to the devaluing of other cultures.
• An example of ethnocentrism comes from the Strange Situation.

  This is because TSS is an imposed etic because the design is based on the idea that separation anxiety is a normal measure of attachment.

  However, Takahashi conducted research in Japan and lots of Japanese babies were classified as insecure resistant due to their high separation anxiety.

  However, Japanese babies are never left by their mothers as separation anxiety is not normal in Japan so TSS shouldn't be applied.
• Another form of culture bias is cultural relativism which is where culture can only be understood when it is viewed within the cultural context and norms and values of the culture where it occurs.
• An example of cultural relativism is Mead's research into culture and gender.

  This research holds an imposed emic as she looked at culture from inside the cultural system and then used this to explain specific gender behaviour.

  Buss used an imposed etic studying gender preferences in 34 countries and found that all countries held the same kinds of views and he attempted to apply these universally.
• Issues with cultural bias in psychology are that it has led to prejudice against certain groups of people.

  Gould explained how the first intelligence tests led to eugenic social policies in the US.

  The piloted IQ tests on 1.75 million army recruits were ethnocentric in that they assumed everyone would know the names of US presidents which led to South Eastern Europe and African Americans receiving the lowest scores.
• The results of the IQ tests led to the informing of racist discourse about genetic inferiority where they were deemed mentally unfit and feeble minded and were denied educational and professional opportunities.

  This therefore shows how culture bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination towards certain cultural and ethnic groups.
• A good thing about cultural bias is the emergence of cultural psychology.

  Cohen states that this is the study of how people shape and are shaped by cultural experience.

  It incorporates other disciplines such as anthropology, sociology and political science.

  Cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by using emic approaches using culturally based techniques.

  The research also tends to focus on just 2 cultures instead of larger scale studies.

  This suggests that if modern psychologists are mindful of the dangers of cultural bias then they may avoid it.