Gender and culture bias
Bias: a person’s views and pre-existing beliefs and viewpoints influence theories and data
interpretation.
● Comes from personal experiences, background, education and political beliefs.
Universality: claim that observed behaviours apply to all humans, regardless of differences
in gender, biology or culture.
● However, most findings only apply to particular groups of people.
Gender bias
● Alpha bias: overemphasises and exaggerates differences in men and women.
○ Psychodynamic approach, Bowlby’s monotropic theory
● Beta bias: underestimates or minimises differences between men and women.
○ Fight or flight, Asch and Milgram
● Androcentrism: theories reflect a male-centric view, women’s behaviour is
misunderstood.
○ Asch and Milgram, Psychodynamic approach
Culture bias
● Cultural bias: human behaviour is judged and based on cultural norms and
experiences.
● Ethnocentrism: when researchers consider one culture or ethnic group superior/the
norm (typically western) and use it as a standard/basis for evaluating other cultures
and making theories.
○ Imposed etic: assumes behaviour in one country is same as in other
cultures.
○ Emic approach: identifies behaviours specific to a culture, opposite of
imposed etic.
○ Ainsworth strange situation
● Cultural relativity: idea that human behaviour should be understood within context
of the culture where it occurs, taking into account norms, values and beliefs.
○ Van Ijzendoorn meta analysis
Henrich (2010)
● Found that many findings are culture-biased amongst hundreds of studies.
○ Studies conducted on WEIRD ps (western, educated, industrialised, rich,
democratic).
○ 68% of research subjects from USA.
○ 96% from western industrialised nations.
● To reduce WEIRD samples, important to use diverse samples and replications across
multiple cultures e.g. Van Ijzendoorn.
Smith and Bond
● Found that 66% of studies are American, 32% European and 2% from other
countries.
○ Suggests psychological research is unrepresentative.
● Therefore shows other cultures should be studied and considered.
, Practical applications
● Considered in diagnosis of mental disorders.
○ American DSM ignored mental disorders found exclusively in non-Americans.
○ DSM-IV in 1994 included short appendix on culture-bound syndromes found
in other parts of the world.
● Therefore suggests psychologists increasingly aware of cultural variations and are
making attempts to increase population validity of their work.
Reinforce negative stereotypes
● Biased research can have real-world effects and limit understanding of behaviour,
resulting in amplification of steretypes.
○ US Army IQ test was culturally biased towards white men; African-Americans
scored lower resulting in negative attitudes towards this group.
○ May lead to eugenic social policies and attitudes.
● Therefore highlights negative effects of biased research.
Biased influential studies
● Classic studies like Asch and Milgram heavily affected by culture and gender bias.
○ Asch experiments in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of
conformity.
● Therefore suggests our understanding of social influence can only be applied to
individualistic cultures.
Bias: a person’s views and pre-existing beliefs and viewpoints influence theories and data
interpretation.
● Comes from personal experiences, background, education and political beliefs.
Universality: claim that observed behaviours apply to all humans, regardless of differences
in gender, biology or culture.
● However, most findings only apply to particular groups of people.
Gender bias
● Alpha bias: overemphasises and exaggerates differences in men and women.
○ Psychodynamic approach, Bowlby’s monotropic theory
● Beta bias: underestimates or minimises differences between men and women.
○ Fight or flight, Asch and Milgram
● Androcentrism: theories reflect a male-centric view, women’s behaviour is
misunderstood.
○ Asch and Milgram, Psychodynamic approach
Culture bias
● Cultural bias: human behaviour is judged and based on cultural norms and
experiences.
● Ethnocentrism: when researchers consider one culture or ethnic group superior/the
norm (typically western) and use it as a standard/basis for evaluating other cultures
and making theories.
○ Imposed etic: assumes behaviour in one country is same as in other
cultures.
○ Emic approach: identifies behaviours specific to a culture, opposite of
imposed etic.
○ Ainsworth strange situation
● Cultural relativity: idea that human behaviour should be understood within context
of the culture where it occurs, taking into account norms, values and beliefs.
○ Van Ijzendoorn meta analysis
Henrich (2010)
● Found that many findings are culture-biased amongst hundreds of studies.
○ Studies conducted on WEIRD ps (western, educated, industrialised, rich,
democratic).
○ 68% of research subjects from USA.
○ 96% from western industrialised nations.
● To reduce WEIRD samples, important to use diverse samples and replications across
multiple cultures e.g. Van Ijzendoorn.
Smith and Bond
● Found that 66% of studies are American, 32% European and 2% from other
countries.
○ Suggests psychological research is unrepresentative.
● Therefore shows other cultures should be studied and considered.
, Practical applications
● Considered in diagnosis of mental disorders.
○ American DSM ignored mental disorders found exclusively in non-Americans.
○ DSM-IV in 1994 included short appendix on culture-bound syndromes found
in other parts of the world.
● Therefore suggests psychologists increasingly aware of cultural variations and are
making attempts to increase population validity of their work.
Reinforce negative stereotypes
● Biased research can have real-world effects and limit understanding of behaviour,
resulting in amplification of steretypes.
○ US Army IQ test was culturally biased towards white men; African-Americans
scored lower resulting in negative attitudes towards this group.
○ May lead to eugenic social policies and attitudes.
● Therefore highlights negative effects of biased research.
Biased influential studies
● Classic studies like Asch and Milgram heavily affected by culture and gender bias.
○ Asch experiments in collectivist cultures found significantly higher rates of
conformity.
● Therefore suggests our understanding of social influence can only be applied to
individualistic cultures.
