Culture bias Issues and debates
In psychology there are two forms of cultural bias, alpha and beta bias. Alpha bias is where,
a difference between cultural groups such as individualist cultures and collectivist cultures is
assumed. For example, Takano and Osaka (1999) have shown that 14/15 studies didn’t
support the common view about differences in conformity between these two cultures.
Beta bias on the other hand, minimises cultural differences in examples such as western IQ
tests used on non-western cultures, where they appeared less intelligent. This is described
as imposed etic as one group imposed their beliefs onto another.
One way to address cultural bias is through the distinction between ethnocentrism and
cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism means seeing the world through one’s own cultural
perspective and believing that this is the only view. Seen is studies such as Asch (1951)
conformity study as it cannot be generalised beyond western American culture, as it has
been found in other studies that other cultures have much different conformity rates. It is
argued that the only way to understand behaviour of another culture, is that researchers
must fully understand how the culture that they are studying see the world, in order to not
generalise like Asch (1951) in his conformity study. This is called cultural relativism.
A strength is that we can learn from past research in order to deal with culture bias. One
way to do this is to take an ‘etic’ approach, by using indigenous researchers to carry out
research into other cultures that we are unfamiliar with. Therefore, an increased
understanding both personally and professionally of international cultures can be reached
and minimise translation problems and discrepancies. This kind of approach allows
researchers to investigate universal behaviour, while avoiding culture bias.
Cultural bias in psychology can simply be dealt with by using studies that have used samples
from different cultures. As it has been found that 66% of research in a European text book
was of American origin, and that an American student was 4,000 times more likely to be a
participant then a non-westerner. This suggests that psychological research is
unrepresentative on a global scale, which highlights the need for more non-western
research.
A real danger of culturally biased research is that it helps to create and enforce stereotypes.
For example, the US army IQ test, which showed that European immigrants were less
intelligent then the Americans. This was due to that fact that they had imposed their own
measure of intelligence onto another culture. Which had a profound effect on attitudes of
the Americans towards the immigrants, highlighting impact that culturally biased research
can have.
In psychology there are two forms of cultural bias, alpha and beta bias. Alpha bias is where,
a difference between cultural groups such as individualist cultures and collectivist cultures is
assumed. For example, Takano and Osaka (1999) have shown that 14/15 studies didn’t
support the common view about differences in conformity between these two cultures.
Beta bias on the other hand, minimises cultural differences in examples such as western IQ
tests used on non-western cultures, where they appeared less intelligent. This is described
as imposed etic as one group imposed their beliefs onto another.
One way to address cultural bias is through the distinction between ethnocentrism and
cultural relativism. Ethnocentrism means seeing the world through one’s own cultural
perspective and believing that this is the only view. Seen is studies such as Asch (1951)
conformity study as it cannot be generalised beyond western American culture, as it has
been found in other studies that other cultures have much different conformity rates. It is
argued that the only way to understand behaviour of another culture, is that researchers
must fully understand how the culture that they are studying see the world, in order to not
generalise like Asch (1951) in his conformity study. This is called cultural relativism.
A strength is that we can learn from past research in order to deal with culture bias. One
way to do this is to take an ‘etic’ approach, by using indigenous researchers to carry out
research into other cultures that we are unfamiliar with. Therefore, an increased
understanding both personally and professionally of international cultures can be reached
and minimise translation problems and discrepancies. This kind of approach allows
researchers to investigate universal behaviour, while avoiding culture bias.
Cultural bias in psychology can simply be dealt with by using studies that have used samples
from different cultures. As it has been found that 66% of research in a European text book
was of American origin, and that an American student was 4,000 times more likely to be a
participant then a non-westerner. This suggests that psychological research is
unrepresentative on a global scale, which highlights the need for more non-western
research.
A real danger of culturally biased research is that it helps to create and enforce stereotypes.
For example, the US army IQ test, which showed that European immigrants were less
intelligent then the Americans. This was due to that fact that they had imposed their own
measure of intelligence onto another culture. Which had a profound effect on attitudes of
the Americans towards the immigrants, highlighting impact that culturally biased research
can have.
