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ISSUES - CULTURAL BIAS
Types of Cultural Bias
Ethnocentrism
- The use of our own ethnic/cultural group as the basis for judgement about other groups.
- The view that our own beliefs are normal/superior to others’, which are strange.
Eurocentrism
- Psychologists place emphasis on European theories/ideas at the expense of those of other cultures.
- Assumes that Western concepts are different/superior to those of others.
- Western research is applied to other cultures, and is seen as a universal view of human behaviour.
Responses to Cultural Bias
Indigenous Psychologies
- Indigenous means native.
- Most indigenous research is done in Asia, and is almost absent in Africa. South Africa is largely Western and individualist, and so fails to reflect the country’s more collectivist indigenous culture. This is not surprising, as 90% of the psychologists, but only 13% of the population are white.
Afrocentrism
- The proposition that all blacks have their roots in Africa, and so psychological theories must be African centred and express African views.
- Disputes the view that European values are universally appropriate descriptions of human behaviour which apply equally to Europeans, and to non-Europeans.
- Values and culture of Europeans at worst de-values non-European peoples, and are irrelevant to the life and culture of Africans.
Economic Theories of Relationships
- Moghaddam (1998) - Economic theories of relationships (social exchange theory and equity theory) apply only to Western relationships.
- The theories reflect characteristics of individualist societies concerned with their own success, and so, with profit and loss in relationships.
- Collectivist societies are more concerned with the success of the group, so ‘profit and loss’ and ‘equity’ in personal relationships are less important.
Evaluation=
- Takano and Osaka (1999) - reviewed 15 studies comparing US and Japan in terms of individualism and collectivism. 14 out of 15 = not support the common view. Result of fundamental attribution error - tendency to overestimate the influence of personal characteristics on behaviour/underestimate situational factors when interpreting collectivist behaviour of the Japanese.
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Understanding
- Seen as a universal description of human behaviour. It is argued that all members of all cultures go through the 6 stages in the same order.
- Biased towards Western democratic cultures.
- Other cultures may have different sets of moral values.
Evaluation
- Snarey (1985) - In a cross-cultural comparison, stages 1-4 appeared to be universal. Stages 5 and 6 did not always appear in less industrialised cultures.
- Post-conventional reasoning (stage 6) was found to be absent in the 8 traditional village societies, but present in all non-western urban samples.
Neuropsychology
- There is limited understanding of cultural differences in neuropsychology.
- Validity of universality in neuropsychology has been questioned.
- Matthew (1992) - Limited kind of neuropsychology, appropriate to fraction of the world’s population - presented to the world as if there is no other kind.
- There is a possibility of different patterns of brain organisation due to different ecological demands.
Evaluation
- Recent research supports the importance of cultural environment in shaping organisation of the human nervous system.
- Ardila (1995) - review of neuropsychological studies - neuropsychological assessments were significantly influenced by ecological and cultural factors.
- Ecological conditions generate processes of adaptation at biological and cultural levels simultaneously.
Emic/Etic Approaches
These terms are used to indicate a set of assumptions underlying cross-cultural research.
The Emic Approach
- Emic approaches…
- Emphasises every culture’s uniqueness by focusing on culturally specific phenomena.
- Study behaviour from within a culture.
- Study only that culture.
- Produce findings significant only within that culture.
The Etic Approach
- The Derived Etic Approach
- Assumes that most human behaviour is common to humans but that cultural factors influence the development or display of this behaviour.
- The Imposed Etic Approach
- Assumes that culture plays little or no role in the development or expression of human behaviour.
- Etic approaches…
- Study behaviour from outside a culture.
- Study many cultures.
- Produce findings considered to have universal application.
Cultural Equivalence in Psychological Studies
Cultural Bias in Obedience Studies
- Most obedience studies are carried out in advanced industrialised cultures - may not indicate a universal behaviour.
Cultural Bias in Psychopathology
- Researchers may impose their own culture’s mental illness categories onto abnormal behaviour in other cultures - and see the behaviour from a Western point of view. Unique culture aspects need to be considered when understanding/identifying abnormal behaviour.
There are problems in establishing equivalence in cross-cultural research (Smith and Bond, 1998);
Translation - Participants are instructed by spoken/written word, their responses often constitute main findings of research. Instructions/responses must be faithfully translated.
Manipulation of variables - This must be the same in each cultural group studied. Expression of happiness may vary, and impact of dependent variable (i.e. an insult) may differ dependent on how it is interpreted.
Participants - Participants may come from similar social groups, but they may have different social backgrounds and experiences in different cultural groups.
The research tradition - In many cultures, people become used to the idea of scientific research, and so will respond positively to participation. They are sure that their responses will remain confidential. In other cultures, where psychological research is rarely practised, this trust cannot be taken for granted.
Comments
- Suitable for: A Level Psychology
- Written by: qexy-loz.
- From this post.
