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COMPONENT 3: CONTROVERSIES - CULTURAL BIAS - Coggle Diagram
COMPONENT 3: CONTROVERSIES - CULTURAL BIAS
CULTURE
referred to as rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that binds society or some collection of people
CULTURAL BIAS
occurs when people from one culture make assumptions about behaviour of another based on their own cultural norms and practices
examples
myers and diener
kohlberg
milgram
characteristics of sz
characteristics of criminal behaviour (social construction of)
psychology is rooted in western ideas, most studies being conducted in america/ other western countries
participants tend to be WEIRD (westernised, educated, industrialised, rich, democratic)
means theories are developed in one culture then applied inappropriately to others
research findings are interpreted in the viewpoint of the researcher's own culture
CROSS CULTURAL STUDIES
when people are selected from two different cultures, then compared with each other
examples
kohlberg
strengths
can be representative, based on perspectives and opinions of researcher
reduces ethnocentrism
weaknesses
can be biased, based on perspectives + opinions of researcher
aspects within cultures can be misinterpreted by researcher
won't be representative of an entire culture/ cultures, won't apply to all
language barriers
BUSS
'sex differences in human mate preferences' - looked at whether there were similarities in mate preferences globally
found same mate preferences across cultures - men looked for youth + good looks, women looked for resources, ambition + industriousness
implies sexual selection is the same from culture to culture, suggesting it's innate
however, this still suffers from cultural bias, and studies like this look to see if they have population validity
aim to investigate whether cultural practices have impact on behaviour
classed as natural experiment
evaluating cross-cultural studies
strengths
buss: allows us to know whether behaviours are innate
western researchers may fail to understand different cultures
buss: interviewed participants from 36 countries by indigenous researcher
also had 3 bilingual speakers: one translated original questionnaire from eng -> native language, the second translated answers into eng, and the third resolve any discrepanies
weaknesses
buss: the translators he used may have filled in any gaps on their own, and translations may not be made entirely accurately (validity issues)
procedures used may be of us standard (imposed etic), and may be applied to non-western cultures (lack of representativeness)
imposed etic: use of psychological tests for techniques developed in one culture + used in another
sample may not be representative of culture, affecting generalisabitlity
potential observer bias/ investigator effects
smith and bond: problems of cross-cultural research
translations: verbal/ written instructions - findings have to be translated, true meaning could be 'lost in translation'
participants: similar participants - same social background/ experience, impacting findings
research tradition: some cultures are used to being part of research, but trust in research process shouldn't be taken for granted where it isn't common
could affect 'natural' behaviour, could be invasive, create conflict
DIFFERENCE OR BIAS
another issue in psychology is that they can sometimes confuse differences between cultures + cultural bias
psychologists may believe they have found differences in culture, but are actually cultural bias
myers and diener: more people report higher levels of subjective well-being compared to collectivist cultures
differences may be due to cultural bias instead of an actual difference
individualistic cultures focus more on individual needs, collectivistic is more about the group
cultural bias focuses on distorted view due to psychologist's own culture, affecting theories, studies
reducing bias
indigenous psycholgies
psychology carried out by members of specific culture, instead of western psychologists
emic approach
recognising some phenomena may only apply in certain cultures, so theories for one culture and cannot be applied cross-culturally
etic approach
recognises the role of culture, acknowledges behaviour does differ from culture to culture
ETHNOCENTRISM
evaluation/ judgement of other cultures/ social groups based on ideals of one's own culture, makes research less valid + objective
when findings from research are applied to cultures outside of society where study was conducted, findings generalised without testing other cultures
most research done in america - western, unis, white m/c students
ethnocentrism applies to cross-cultural research, when it is done using measuring tools in individualistic culture
can lead to alpha and beta biases
alpha: assumption that there are real + continuous differences between cultural groups
beta: theories that ignore/ minimise cultural differences, seen when tessts assumed to have the same meaning in all cultures (kohlberg, buss)
milgram: 'germans were different' due to what happened in ww2
also found americans would also blindly follow authority to point of inflicting harm
alpha bias - disregarded behaviour like situational obedience being universal
kohlberg: used moral dilemmas, used cross culture but designed in the west, so dilemma wasn't culturally relevant (imposed etic)
beta bias - assuming moral dilemmas are same cross culturally
kohlberg did adapt dilemmad for participants in taiwan, ensuring results were culturally relative to people of taiwan
HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT