culture in psychology: cultural bias

• cultural bias: Rachel Mustin and Jeanne Maracek (1988) suggested that before being able to decide if there are cultural difference one must consider the extent to which any research (theory or study) is biased
• cultural bias: only then can the 'truth' be disentangled from the way psychological research has found it, Mustin and Marecek proposed that there are two different ways that theories may be biased = alpha and beta bias, we can apply this to culture as well as gender
• cultural bias-alpha bias: refers to theories that assume there are real and enduring difference between cultural groups
• cultural bias-alpha bias: an example is the distinction usually made between individualist and collectivist cultures, we would expect members of individualistic cultures to be less conformist because they are less orientated towards group norms
• cultural bias-alpha bias: to assess the validity of this view = Takano and Osaka (1999) reviewed 15 studies that compared the US and Japan in terms of individualism/collectivism, 14/15 studies didn't support the common view about differences in conformity
• cultural bias-alpha bias: this findings suggests that the individualism/collectivism dimension may not be a real distinction suggesting that the distinction between 'individualist' and 'collectivist' cultures is no longer a useful one
• cultural bias-beta bias: refers to theories that ignore or minimise cultural differences, they do this by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories/methods w/ all cultural groups
• cultural bias-beta bias: e.g. intelligence testing = psychologists use IQ tests devised by Western psychologists to study intelligence in many different cultures, the psychologists assume that their view of intelligence applies to all cultures equally
• cultural bias-beta bias: e.g. Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual, in contrast a collectivist culture such as Ugandan society sees intelligence as a functional relationship depending on shared knowledge between the individual and society
• cultural bias-beta bias: the result is that when such Western IQ tests are used on non-Western cultures = non-Western people may appear less intelligent
• cultural bias-beta bias: such tests are described as an imposed etic = where a research method or psychological test that is developed by one group is imposed on other groups of people (an 'etic' being the belief that perceptions, behaviours etc are shared by all cultural groups)
• ethnocentrism refers to the use of our own ethnic or cultural group as a basis for judgements about other groups , there is a tendency to view the belief, customs and behaviours of our own group as 'normal' and even superior whereas those of other groups are 'strange' or deviant
• ethnocentrism-alpha bias: ethnocentrism is an example of alpha bias because one's own culture is considered to be different and better and the consequence of this is that other cultures and their practices are devalued
• ethnocentrism-alpha bias: an example of this is individualist attitudes towards attachment where independence is values and dependence is seen as undesirable = in collectivist cultures, dependence tends to be more highly valued
• ethnocentrism-beta bias: ethnocentrism can also lead to a beta bias = if psychologists believe their world view is the only view e.g. IQ testing above results from ethnocentrism where it was believed it was appropriate to use American IQ tests all over the world because there was an assumption that the American standard was universal
• in a way the opposite of ethnocentrism in psychology is cultural relativism = the idea that all cultures are worthy of respect and that in studying another culture we need to try to understand the way that a particular culture sees the world
• cultural relativism-alpha bias: cultural relativism can also lead to an alpha bias where the assumption of real difference leads psychologist to overlook universals
• cultural relativism-alpha bias: e.g. Margaret Mead's research in Papua New Guinea where she initially concluded that there were significant gender difference due to culture, but later recognised that there were universals (probably related to biology) that the men in all cultures were more aggressive than the women
• cultural relativism-beta bias: cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental disorder = in the case of the statistical infrequency definition of abnormality = behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be statistically more frequent in another
• cultural relativism-beta bias: e.g. one of the symptoms of schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices however this is an experience that is common in some cultures = by assuming that the same rules apply universally (a beta bias) we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but that diagnosis is relative to our culture
• strength: one way to counter ethnocentricism in psychology is to encourage indigenous psychologies = the development of different groups of theories in different countries = this had led to the development of theories relevant to the life + culture of people of African descent
• limitation: cultural bias in psychology can also be dealt w/ simply by using studies w/ samples from different cultural groups = suggesting that psychology findings are not only unrepresentative on a global scale but also within Western culture and there is a pressing need for more research w/ samples from different cultural groups
• limitation: a real danger of culturally biased research is that it helps to create or reinforce stereotypes = therefore the consequence was enduring stereotypes concerning certain ethnic groups and their IQ
• strength: researchers in psychology like most people travel much more now than they did 50 years ago = this means there is a much greater exchange of ideas which should reduce ethnocentricism in psychology = enable an understanding of cultural relativism and mean that real differences are identified and valued
• collectivist cultures is a community that priorities the group over the individual, an example being Korean
• individualistic cultures are those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs of the group as a whole, an example being the United States
•  Ainsworth’s strange situation is an example of ethnocentrism = it was developed to assess attachment types and many researchers assume that the Strange Situation has the same meaning for the infants from other cultures as it does for American children 
• cultural relativism: the meaning of intelligence is different in every culture, for example Sternberg (1985) pointed out that coordination skills that may be essential to life in a preliterate society (e.g. those motor skills required for shooting a bow + arrow) may be mostly irrelevant to intelligent behaviour for most people in a literate and more ‘developed’ society 
• preliterate means existing before or lacking the use of writing = disadvantaged societies + individuals in poverty
• a multitude of factors shape culture and these different factors are reflected in the differences between various cultures 
• historically psychology has been dominated by white, middle-class American males who have taken over both as researchers + as participants
• research findings + theories have been generalised as if culture makes no real difference