Cultural bias

What is cultural bias

A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the ‘lens’ of one’s own culture, ignoring the effects that cultural differences might have on behaviour

What did Joseph Henrich et al. find after reviewing hundreds of studies in leading psych journals

Found that 68% of research participants came from the United States, and 96% from industrialised nations. Another review found that 80% of research participants were undergraduates studying psychology

Such findings suggest that what we know about human behaviour has a strong cultural bias

What term did Henrich et al. coin to describe the people most likely to be studied by psychologists

WEIRD - Westernised, Educated people from Industrialised, Rich Democracies

What happens if the norm for a particular behaviour is set by WEIRD people

The behaviour of people from non-Westernised, less educated, agricultural and poorer cultures is inevitably seen as ‘abnormal’, ‘inferior’ or ‘unusual’

What is ethnocentrism

A particular form of cultural bias which is a belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group. Research suggests that people from the US and Europe have presented an ethnocentric view of human behaviour

What is an example of ethnocentrism

Ainsworth and Bell’s Strange Situation - criticised as reflecting only the norms and values of what is sometimes called ‘Western’ culture. Researchers studied attachment types and suggested that "ideal" attachment, typical of secure attachment, involves babies showing moderate distress when separated from their mother-figure. However, this led to misunderstandings about parenting styles in other countries that differ from the American standard. For instance, Japanese infants were often classified as insecurely attached because they showed high distress when separated (Takahashi, 1986). This likely reflects that Japanese babies are rarely separated from their mothers

What is cultural relativism

The idea that norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningful and understood within specific social and cultural contexts

Who drew a distinction between etic and emic approaches in the study of human behaviour and what does this mean

John Berry. An etic approach looks at behaviour from outside of a given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal. An emic approach functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture

What is Ainsworth and Bell’s research an example of

Imposed etic - they studied behaviour from inside one culture (America) and then assumed that their ideal attachment type & the method for assessing it could be applied universally

What is another example of imposed etic

How we define abnormality

What did Berry argue that psychology has often been guilty of and what does this suggest

Guilty of imposed etic - arguing that theories, models, concepts etc are universal when they actually came about through emic research inside a single culture. Suggests psychologists should be much more mindful of the cultural relativism of their research - that the things they discover may only make sense from the perspective of the culture within which they were discovered

What is a limitation

Many influential psychology studies are culturally biased. For example, Asch's and Milgram's original research involved only U.S. participants, mostly white, middle-class students. When these studies were repeated in other countries, the results differed. For instance, Asch-type experiments found higher conformity rates in collectivist cultures compared to the U.S., an individualist culture. This shows that our understanding of social influence may only apply to individualist cultures

What is a counterpoint to the previous evaluation point

With increased global media influence, the distinction between individualist and collectivist cultures is argued to be outdated. Traditionally, individualist countries like the US value independence, while collectivist countries like India and China prioritize group needs. However, Takano and Osaka (1999) found that 14 out of 15 studies comparing the US and Japan showed no clear evidence of this divide, describing the distinction as lazy and simplistic. This suggests cultural bias may be less of an issue in recent psychological research

What is a strength

Emergence of cultural psych. Cultural psychology studies how people influence and are influenced by their cultural experiences. This emerging field draws from disciplines like anthropology, sociology, and political science. Cultural psychologists aim to avoid ethnocentric bias by using an emic approach, working within cultures alongside local researchers with culturally relevant methods. Cross-cultural research often focuses on just two cultures instead of larger scale studies including 8 or 9 cultures/countries. This shows that modern psychologists are increasingly aware of cultural bias and are working to minimise it

What is a limitation

Led to prejudice against certain groups. Stephen Jay Gould (1981) highlighted how early intelligence tests led to prejudice and discriminatory policies in the US. During World War I, psychologists tested 1.75 million army recruits using IQ tests that were ethnocentric, assuming knowledge like the names of US presidents. Recruits from southeastern Europe and African-Americans scored lowest, but instead of questioning the test’s fairness, these results were used to promote racist ideas about genetic inferiority. Ethnic minorities were labeled as "mentally unfit" and denied education and job opportunities. This shows how cultural bias can be used to justify prejudice and discrimination against certain groups