| What is cultural bias? | The tendency to judge all people in terms of favour own cultural expectations |
| What is ethnocentrism? | Judging other cultures by the standards/values of your own. Extreme of this could be believing your own culture is superior (leads to prejudice/discrimination) |
| What is cultural relativism? | The idea that norms/value can only be understood within a specific cultural and social contexts. Some things may only exist in specific cultures. |
| What is emic construct? | A theory that can be applied to a specific cultural group |
| What is etic construct? | A theory that is assumed to apply to all cultures |
| What is imposed etic ? | Occurs when an emic construct is assumed to be an etic construct. |
| What is alpha bias? | When a study/theory over exaggerates the difference between the cultures (this may enhance or undervalue members of the cultures) |
| What is beta bias? | Ignoring or minisming the differences between cultures |
| What is universality? | When a theory is described as universal, it means that it can apply to all people, irrespective of gender and culture. |
| A strength of cultural boas? | -Conducting cross-cultural research is important in order to challenge implicit assumptions
- Understadning that certain concepts or knoweldge we taken for granted may not be sharped by others canhelp to reduce imposed etic and challenges the typical Western way of thinking
- Encourages researchers to investgate cultural differences in behaviour and calenge perious claims of 'scientific racism'
-Means that future conclusions drawn by psychologist are likely to be more internally and externally valid with more recongnition of important role that cultural plays |
| A weakness of cultural bias? | -Operationalising variables can pose a problem when conducting cross-cultural research
-Certain variabes might not be experienced by all ppts the same: eg. China, invasion of personal space in noramlise - in the UK it can come across as threatening
-Affect clinical diagnoses too eg: schizophremia being over-diagnosed in African cuturals (talking to your ancesotrs, seen as a positve symptom of SZ)
-Factors can make it difficult to study certain phemonomon or theproes across different cultures |
| A weakness of cultural bias? | -Cultural difference becoming increasingly more blurred in moderntimes
-Pscyholgoists have often referenced the individualistic-collectivst culture divide, with individualistic cultures favouring independence and collectivist cultures more rooted in interdependence
-However 14/15 studies into cultural differences between Japan and USA in a meta-analysis by Takano and Osaka found no evidence of the individualistic-collectivist data
-Now with international travel and emigration and multi-culturalism is becoming increasingly more commn, classical view too simplistic |
| Weakness of cultural bias? | -Whilst it is important to consider cultural bias in research, shouldn't be assumed that there is no such thing as a universal behaviour
-Research suggest that basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the human and animal world
-Even though Ainsworth's strange situation and attachment types can be crituiqed for imposed etic, research has shown that some features of attachemtn (imitation and interactional syncrhony) are universal
-Understand human behaiovur more fully, we have to appreciate behaviour unique to specific cultures (cultrually relative) and universal behaviour together. |
