Discuss cultural bias in psychology (16 marks)
Culture bias occurs when you judge people in terms of your own culture. Researchers have
wrongly assumed that findings from western cultures can be applied all over the world
(universality). However, this is a culture bias as findings from culture are used to judge other
cultures and any differences are seen as abnormal.
Ethnocentrism is a type of culture bias which is a belief that one culture is more superior
than another. For example, Ainsworth study has been criticised for only reflecting the norms
and values of American culture as ‘secure attachments’ in infants is seen as ideal. This has
led to mother in Germany seen as cold and rejecting based on strange situation when reality
this is the way this culture rears children.
Cultural relativism helps to avoid cultural bias as psychologist are able to recognise the facts
they discover may only make sense from a perspective of a certain culture. Psychology has
been criticised for using an etic approach as it looks at behaviour outside a culture and tries
to explain universal behaviour. Whereas actually the theories come from emic approach
where functions within a certain culture (western) are applied to non-western cultures. As
result Ainsworth is a result of imposed etic as imposed her own cultural values and beliefs
upon the world.
A strength with psychological research is recognition of cultural relativism and universality.
For example, Ekman research suggests basic facial expressions for emotions are the same
for all humans. So those who criticise Ainsworth study for being culturally biased should
consider some attachments which are universal such as synchrony and imitation. Thus, this
leads to better understanding of human behaviours as the study requires both universal and
variation within groups and individuals.
A limitation of psychological research is there is no longer the issue of individualism and
collectivism. For example, Takano and Osaka (1999) found from 14/15 studies which
compared Japan and USA there was no evidence of distinction between the cultures. This is
a limitation as psychologists refer to culture in terms of individualistic vs collectivist cultures.
However, critics have argued this distinction no longer remains due to improvements to
technology like the internet. Thus, this invalidates the problem of this type of culture bias as
it not much of an issue than it once was.
Another limitation of psychological research is that it can suffer from methodological issues
of familiarity with research. For example, in western cultures participants are familiar with
general aims and objectives of scientific research. However, this same scientific testing faith
is not applicable to all scientific testing. Thus, this can lead to demand characteristics when
working with members of the local population as unfamiliarity of the research traditions
affects the validity.
Another limitation with psychological research is methodological issues of operationalising
variables. For example, the behaviour expression for behaviours such as aggression may be
different within cultures, so this is a limitation when conducting research in different
cultures as the variable investigated may not be experienced the same by all participants.
Culture bias occurs when you judge people in terms of your own culture. Researchers have
wrongly assumed that findings from western cultures can be applied all over the world
(universality). However, this is a culture bias as findings from culture are used to judge other
cultures and any differences are seen as abnormal.
Ethnocentrism is a type of culture bias which is a belief that one culture is more superior
than another. For example, Ainsworth study has been criticised for only reflecting the norms
and values of American culture as ‘secure attachments’ in infants is seen as ideal. This has
led to mother in Germany seen as cold and rejecting based on strange situation when reality
this is the way this culture rears children.
Cultural relativism helps to avoid cultural bias as psychologist are able to recognise the facts
they discover may only make sense from a perspective of a certain culture. Psychology has
been criticised for using an etic approach as it looks at behaviour outside a culture and tries
to explain universal behaviour. Whereas actually the theories come from emic approach
where functions within a certain culture (western) are applied to non-western cultures. As
result Ainsworth is a result of imposed etic as imposed her own cultural values and beliefs
upon the world.
A strength with psychological research is recognition of cultural relativism and universality.
For example, Ekman research suggests basic facial expressions for emotions are the same
for all humans. So those who criticise Ainsworth study for being culturally biased should
consider some attachments which are universal such as synchrony and imitation. Thus, this
leads to better understanding of human behaviours as the study requires both universal and
variation within groups and individuals.
A limitation of psychological research is there is no longer the issue of individualism and
collectivism. For example, Takano and Osaka (1999) found from 14/15 studies which
compared Japan and USA there was no evidence of distinction between the cultures. This is
a limitation as psychologists refer to culture in terms of individualistic vs collectivist cultures.
However, critics have argued this distinction no longer remains due to improvements to
technology like the internet. Thus, this invalidates the problem of this type of culture bias as
it not much of an issue than it once was.
Another limitation of psychological research is that it can suffer from methodological issues
of familiarity with research. For example, in western cultures participants are familiar with
general aims and objectives of scientific research. However, this same scientific testing faith
is not applicable to all scientific testing. Thus, this can lead to demand characteristics when
working with members of the local population as unfamiliarity of the research traditions
affects the validity.
Another limitation with psychological research is methodological issues of operationalising
variables. For example, the behaviour expression for behaviours such as aggression may be
different within cultures, so this is a limitation when conducting research in different
cultures as the variable investigated may not be experienced the same by all participants.
