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Culture bias: full marks
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This essay outlines and evaluates culture bias within psychology, including examples. This sample essay is 16/16 A*.
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Discuss culture bias in psychology (16 marks)Culture bias is the tendency to ignore cultural diferences and interpret all phenomena in regards to
one’s own culture. This may include alpha bias (exaggeratng the diferences between cultures) or beta bias
(assuming all cultures are the same, and generalising conclusions without evidence).
Ethnocentrism is judging other cultures by the standards of one’s own culture, sometmes to the extent
where other cultures are seen as inferior. For example, Ainsworth’s ‘Strange Situaton’ procedure was based on
American theories of atachment, and the lack of separaton anxiety in German infants branded German
mothers as cold and rejectng, rather than acknowledging the importance of independence within the German
culture. Ainsworth’s research is also an example of imposed etc, whereby the researcher assumes culture plays
litle or no role in the development or expression of human behaviour.
Cultural relatvism is the idea that behaviours can only be meaningful within specifc cultural contexts,
and that behaviour should be judged according to the culture in which it takes place. This is ofen achieved by
taking an emic approach to research, whereby the focus is on one partcular culture.
Cultural bias in psychological research is a socially sensitve issue with potentally discriminatory
consequences. For example, Goddard gave US immigrants IQ tests, and claimed that some cultures – including
Russian and Hungarian cultures – were ‘feeble-minded’. The IQ test assumed a good knowledge of the English
language and was clearly not an appropriate test for the variety of cultures studied. Culturally biased research is
therefore limited as it is an example of scientfc racism that justfes discriminaton and prejudice.
However, culture bias may be less of an issue now than it was in the past, because previously distnctve
cultures are becoming increasingly similar due to globalisaton and increased interconnectedness. Tokano and
Osaka reviewed collectvist and individualist cultural distnctons between the USA and Japan and found no
diference in 4 out of 45 studies. hhilst this may mean there is more opportunity to study universal
behaviours, this does not mean we can discredit the importance of cultural relatvism as we risk incorrect
generalisatons.
It is difficult to balance cultural relatvism with other necessary features of psychological experiments.
For objectvity, scientfc credibility and high internal validity, operatonalised variables must be kept the same
throughout replicatons of an experiment. However, for cultural relatvism it is important that the variables
mean the same thing in each culture; for example, pointng is seen as aggressive in Thailand but not in America.
Also, standardised procedures should be kept the same. However, Bond and Smith argue that some natve
cultures are not familiar with the general aims of scientfc enquiry, and therefore may show increased demand
characteristcs, meaning the research has less validity; instructons may therefore need to be altered when using
natve samples. This dilemma may be tackled with relexivity, whereby the researcher discusses how their own
personal biases and the biases of the method may have afected the fndings, and – where possible – by using
research teams that are culturally representatve of the partcipants.
hord count: 482 + 346
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