Culture bias
1 Ethnocentrism = seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective
and believing this perspective is normal and correct. Seeing one’s own culture
as superior.
e.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation procedure. Research using this categorises
infant behaviour according to behavioural categories developed from
observations of white American infants. Means when interpret non-American
infant behaviour, they judge it against the American standard – imposing etics.
Emic approach – study within a culture, identifying behaviours specific to the
culture studied e.g. Mead.
Etic approach – assuming behaviour from outside a culture is universal, then
attempting to make general laws from this.
Imposing etics = when a theory is developed in one culture then imposed on
another which can lead to stereotyping, discrimination, misdiagnosis etc.
E.g. US army intelligence test, items on the tests were specific to American
culture, explains why European immigrants and African Americans scored less
than Americans, not because they are inferior in terms of intelligence but
because the test was culturally biased. This therefore validated stereotypes,
may’ve led to them receiving fewer educational opportunities.
2 cultural relativism = insists behaviour can only be properly understood if
cultural context is taken into consideration. Usually an emic approach w
findings only making sense from perspective or context of the culture they
were discovered in.
e.g. Jahoda’s definition of deviation from ideal mental health lacks cultural
relativism.
Universality: When a theory is described as universal, it means that it can apply
to all people, irrespective of gender and culture. However, this also means that
it needs to include real differences. Many theories which are seen as universal
have actually only been tested on small cultural groups. Henrich et al used the
term WEIRD to describe the groups most theories are based on – westernized
educated from industrialized rich democracies.
Ways researchers could reduce bias:
1 Ethnocentrism = seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective
and believing this perspective is normal and correct. Seeing one’s own culture
as superior.
e.g. Ainsworth’s strange situation procedure. Research using this categorises
infant behaviour according to behavioural categories developed from
observations of white American infants. Means when interpret non-American
infant behaviour, they judge it against the American standard – imposing etics.
Emic approach – study within a culture, identifying behaviours specific to the
culture studied e.g. Mead.
Etic approach – assuming behaviour from outside a culture is universal, then
attempting to make general laws from this.
Imposing etics = when a theory is developed in one culture then imposed on
another which can lead to stereotyping, discrimination, misdiagnosis etc.
E.g. US army intelligence test, items on the tests were specific to American
culture, explains why European immigrants and African Americans scored less
than Americans, not because they are inferior in terms of intelligence but
because the test was culturally biased. This therefore validated stereotypes,
may’ve led to them receiving fewer educational opportunities.
2 cultural relativism = insists behaviour can only be properly understood if
cultural context is taken into consideration. Usually an emic approach w
findings only making sense from perspective or context of the culture they
were discovered in.
e.g. Jahoda’s definition of deviation from ideal mental health lacks cultural
relativism.
Universality: When a theory is described as universal, it means that it can apply
to all people, irrespective of gender and culture. However, this also means that
it needs to include real differences. Many theories which are seen as universal
have actually only been tested on small cultural groups. Henrich et al used the
term WEIRD to describe the groups most theories are based on – westernized
educated from industrialized rich democracies.
Ways researchers could reduce bias:
