Culture Bias

Define Cultural bias

when an explanation of behaviour is developed is developed in one culture and unfairly applied to other cultures

Define Ethnocentrism

when a theory is developed using the researcher’s own cultural background and then unfairly applied to other cultures

Ethnocentrim example - Asch

Asch’s research is ethnocentric cuz his research was conducted in America (Asch’s own culture) + then findings were assumed to be the ‘norm’ for all other cultures

Ethnocentrim example - Ainsworth

cuz she conducted research in USA (her own culture) + generalised findings to all children + cultures

Ethnocentrim example - Milgram’s

cuz he conducted his research in USA (his own cultures) + applied the applied the findings to all cultures.

Define cultural relativism

view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in context of the culture in which it originates

cultural relativism - Ainsworth + Japan example

Ainsworth’s strange situation described the characteristics of ‘secure’, ‘insecure avoidant’ + ‘insecure resistant’, but the importance of these qualities can only be understood by considering the cultural context of the infant.

e.g., highest frequency of insecure resistant children were found in Japan, but Japanese mothers very rarely allow others to take care of their children which could explain this.

- Culturally biased research creates or reinforces stereotypes

Takahashi (1990), replicated Aninswort’s strange situation on Japanese infants + found that they were being unfairly labelled as ‘insecure’ due to cultural differences in parenting style.
this led negative stereotypes towards Japanese parenting, suggesting that culturally bias research creates stereotypes of non-western cultures

this reinforces importance of taking a culturally relative approach, as understanding that Japanese mothers and infants separate from each other in early years could help Western cultures understand these findings

- Culture Bias leads to inferiority

design of IQ tests often reflects Western cultural norms + values regarding what is considered ‘intelligent’ behaviour
e.g., US army used IQ test before WW1 which was culturally biased + test showed that African Americans were at bottom of the scale in terms of IQ leading to them being perceived as ‘inferior’ by Western standards
therefore, acknowledging + addressing these biases is crucial for developing fair + culturally sensitive assessments of intelligence

+ Cross cultural research

involves studying behaviours, attitudes, + phenomena across different cultural groups.

e.g., in Western cultures individuals would be diagnosed with Schizophrenia for hearing voices as this would be an example of auditory hallucination. However, in Maori tribe it is usual hear voices + seen as religious experience

including diverse cultural groups in research, allows us to make more accurate + applicable generalisation of behaviour when diagnosing mental health.