Cultural Bias

• What is it called when theories try to generalise, in a way that applies to everyone?

  Nomothetic approach
• What is Universality?


  A theory of behaviour applies to everyone
• When researchers misrepresent the differences between cultures, it’s called cultural bias.
• When someone focuses on their own cultural perspective, we call it ethnocentrism.

  Sometimes, this also involves assuming that their own cultural perspective is correct, or more normal, and sometimes seeing the social practises of other cultures as abnormal.
• When psychology research lacks validity or reliability due to ethnocentrism, we say that the research suffers from ethnocentric bias.

  This might be because the researchers ignored other cultures completely, or because the researcher studied other cultures without understanding their cultural perspective.
• Consequences of Ethnocentrism

  • Decreases the validity and reliability of research
  • Can lead to misdiagnosis of psychological conditions
  • Can lead to harmful stereotypes
• One example of ethnocentric bias is Mary Ainsworth's research on attachment styles, because she assumed babies from other cultures (collectivist) would behave in the same way.
• What is cultural relativism?


  The belief that all cultural practices and beliefs should be understood and evaluated within their own cultural context.
• Consequences of Cultural Relativism

  • May exaggerate the differences between cultures (alpha bias)
  • May ignore the differences within a culture (beta bias)
• What is cross cultural research?


  When research being carried out in different cultures, to see if theories generalise, or if there are cultural variations. (conducted by researchers from the same culture being tested).