NS

Discuss cultural bias in psychology. Refer to examples of research in your answer. [16 marks]

Universality - the extent to which psychological study and theory apply universally to human behaviour, challenged by culture bias

  • Stats to demonstrate…

    • In 1992, 64% of the world’s 56,000 researchers were American

    • 2020 analysis of the journal Psychological Science, 94% of papers were based on WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic) samples

  • Demonstrates culture bias as researchers ignore cultural differences (presume their sample is reflective of everyone) and interpretation of info is through the lens of a Western perspective (the majority of the researchers are Western)

  • A particularly extreme form of cb - ethnocentrism, belief in the superiority one’s own culture,

    • example of the strange situation

  • Concept of cultural relativism - norms and values are only meaningful and understood in specific social and cultural contexts

  • Research is either etic - attempts to find universal laws of behaviour, or emic - attempts to find culturally specific laws of behaviour

  • Applying a culture’s norms and values on another is imposed etic, strange situation was etic research, presumed to apply universally

  • Perhaps there aren’t vast distinctions in culture, individualist vs collectivist differences aren’t necessarily that strong, Osaka (1999), 14/15 studies found no evidence of traditional distinctions between Japan and America, age of global interconnectedness means cultural bias less of an issue now, safer to assume that behaviours are universal

  • there are universal behaviours e.g. facial expressions for emotions such as happiness and disgust (Ekman 1989), shouldn’t forget that humans do have a lot in common regardless of cultures

  • differences in the research tradition, Western ppts are familiar with the aims of psychological research, may result in demand characteristics, traits are therefore exaggerated in local populations

  • difficulties in conducting cross-culture research, variables under review may not be experienced the same way by all participants, results in differences in behaviour that confound the results of a study, makes it very difficult to conduct research that produces universal laws of behaviour as cultural differences mean the study will be experienced slightly differently by everyone