Cultural bias

What is a criticism of psychological theories?

It has often not acknowledged differences in cultures, and developed theories based on 1 culture

What are the statistics that support the view that psychological research is narrow?

-1992: 64% of psychology researchers were American

-1991: 94% of studies in a textbook on social psychology were conducted in North America

Define cultural bias

The tendency to interpret ideas, information etc. through one’s own cultural standards

Define ethnocentrism

-Judging other countries by the standards of one’s own culture

-It can cause the belief that one’s own culture is superior, leading to discrimination of other cultures

-In psychological research this causes a view that behaviours that are not Western are unsophisticated

Define ethic approach

looking at behaviour from outside the culture and describing it using universal ideas

Define emic approach

looking at behaviour from within the culture and identifies behaviours specific to that culture

What is an example of an ethic approach?

Mary Ainsworth’s study:

-stated that the defining variable of attachment type was the child’s anxiety when being separated from parents

-The ideal level of distress was moderate (showed secure attachment)

-It reflected American norms so it’s an example of an imposed ethic

Define cultural relativism

-The idea that norms and ethics can only be understood within specific and cultural contexts

-Berry (1969) argues that psychology imposes ethic approaches even though the theories came from emic research from one culture

-Although researchers work with people from other cultures they don’t work within the culture so may see their own culture as superior

-WEIRD: Western, Educated and from Industrialised, Rich and Democratic countries

How can cultural bias be evaluated through individual and collectivist cultures?

-It is suggested that individualist and collectivist cultures have few differences due to interconnectedness through global communication

-1999: Takano and Osaka found 14/15 studies comparing USA and Japan had no evidence of this cultural difference

-Therefore, it is argued that cultural bias is over emphasised

How can cultural bias be evaluated through universality?

-Basic facial expressions are universal

-Some features of human attachment are universal (interaction synchrony)

-Therefore, not all psychology is culturally relative