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Cultural Bias (Cross-Cultural Studies (:star: Examples of psychological…
Cultural Bias
Cross-Cultural Studies
:star: Examples of psychological research which has attempted to represent behaviour in different cultures
:star: Valuable in determining etic & emic behaviours
:check: Buss - Human mate selection, 10,000 ppts in 36 countries. Buss not only used translators to develop questionnaires but also made amendments to questionnaires. E.g. Sweden- couples live together but do not marry, Nigeria- Practice of polygamy.
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:check: Kohlberg- Studied development in USA along with Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey, Canada and GB. Kohlberg also amended his questionnaire for Taiwan.
:star: Not only did Kohlberg use a wide culturally diverse sample but he also avoided imposed etic by trying to amend his questionnaire to make them more relevant to the ppts of the countries he was studying.
:red_cross: However, didn't use indigenous psychologies and use a person from Taiwan to amend the questionnaire. Therefore, there may still be cultural bias
:star: Cross cultural studies identify which behaviours are universal i.e. mate selection and which are influenced by culture i.e.obedience. This allows psychology to achieve it's main goal of explaining all behaviour
:star: We can also use it to learn from behaviour in other cultures e.g. AKA tribe research which demonstrates males are capable of being the PCG and the decriminalisation of drugs in Portugal
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Ethnocentrism
Present in psychology
:star: Psychology view = distorted by the assumption that how things are in 'western' culture = same everywhere
:check: Baron & Byrne - reviewed studies in social psychology textbook from 1990:
:arrow_forward: 94% = North America
:arrow_forward: 2% = Europe
:arrow_forward: 1% = Australasia
:arrow_forward: 3% = Rest of the world
:star: Majority of studies are done in North America = bias towards western culture. This shows a domination of research by the west, specifically North America, under the assumption western norms are right & natural
:check: Myers and Diener - literature review of research to establish 'who is happy'
One factor which was examined is whether culture influences happiness = measured using SWB
:star: Assumes SWB (OWN happiness = individualist western norms) as a measure of happiness = natural & right. Collectivist cultures more concerned with happiness of group than individual = imposed etic. More relevant question: 'How happy is your family/community?'
:check: Diagnostic systems - DSM & ICD. Classifies behaviour such as hallucinations as symptoms of psychosis which is based off western norms and practices and created by western psychologists. In some cultures hearing voices = sign of spirituality and higher status e.g. South American cultures. DSM & ICD doesn't recognise this = imposed etic.
:star: Higher rates of diagnosis of Sz in ethnic minorities which could be due to DSM & ICD which imposes western norms. Hallucinations may be a more normal and natural behaviour in these cultures. Doesn't accurately represent behaviour outside western culture
:star: Psychology provides Euro-American behaviour which only accounts for 25% of world. As psychology should discover what behaviours are emic and what are etic.
:star: This could lead to alpha bias = differences between cultures exaggerated
Beta bias = minimises differences between studies carried out in America which are applied universally.
However...
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- Adopt a cultural relative approach- only judge behaviour in context of culture it originated in.
- Indigenous psychologies - Kim & Berry - psychologists from within a culture, create tools to measure behaviour within the culture as western psychologists may still misinterpret behaviours
:star: This reduces the risk of ethnocentrism and imposed etics by creating methods which better understand different cultures in order to create research which can understand all behaviours and separate etic behaviours from emic behaviour
Not all studies focused on Western ppts and behaviours are ethnocentric - :green_cross: Loftus & Palmer - western researchers using western ppts. Topic = memory processing. This process could be argued to be etic
:star: Therefore, western nature = justified and does not create problems. Not all research is therefore ethnocentric and in some cases a western dominated study can still be applied to all cultures.
Difference or bias
Bias
:star: Psychology has evolved within a very specific cultural context = Euro-American.
:star: Are differences in between culture real or a result of biased research?
:check:: Myers & Diener - found differences in SWB with individualist cultures reporting higher SWB = cultural bias as it is due to imposed etic as tool is designed by Western researchers based on Western norms = alpha bias as collectivist cultures appear different but this is only due to ethnocentrism.
:star: Implies one culture = superior (individualist & Western) can lead to -ve stereotypes and therefore could result in discrimination and racism. This could reinforce racist attitudes.
:check: Kohlberg - moral development in other cultures. Created moral dilemmas which are based on western concepts. Some were adapted e.g. for Taiwan ''A man's wife is starving to death but the store owner won't give him food unless he can pay, which he can't. Should the man break into the shop and steal some food?''
However, the dilemma may still be based on western culture and not a true moral dilemma for ppts of other cultures.
Kohlberg reported findings that moral development was 'slower'' in Taiwan and Mexico but 'faster' in US.
:star: Differences may be a result of bias as the moral dilemmas used to measure is based on Western culture. Therefore, the moral dilemma wasn't relevant in all cultures, therefore it cannot accurately and truly measure moral development.
:check: Jensen - research into race and intelligence. Controversial due to historical context (1969). African-American children in USA score on average, 15 points lower than white children on a range of IQ tests. 80% of variation in IQ = genetically based.
:star: Research is highly criticised as IQ tests were biased towards white people due to questions and language used e.g. sofa vs. coach. Test not accessible to black American children and could be used to implement racist segregation.
:red_cross: Williams- BITCH test = IQ test specifically for African-American. Black children = performed well vs. white children = poor.
:star: Could lead to findings which do not accurately represent individuals from other cultures. Psychologies key aim = represent all behaviour.
:star: Key factor in alpha bias = exaggeration
:star: Reinforces negative stereotypes, other cultures inferior, reinforce racial stereotypes.
Overcome
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- Adopt a more culturally relative approach
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