Every Issues and Debate 16 marker with example answers to be asked in AQA A Level Psychology
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‘Outline and evaluate culture bias in psychology’ (16 marks)
In psychology, a culture bias occurs when people are judged in terms of someone else’s
cultural expectations and there are two types- alpha and beta. An alpha bias is when a
theory assumes that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. For
example, when studying levels of attachment, Van Ijzendoorn and Kroonenberg found in
their meta-analysis that different countries had different norms with the way children were
brough up (Germans more insecure-avoidant whereas Japan more insecure-resistant). On
the other hand, beta bias is the idea that theories ignore or minimise cultural differences by
assuming that all people are the same. For example, when IQ tests are devised in western
cultures, these are generally applied to all cultures despite western IQ being based on the
individual whereas non-western cultures have intelligence based on shared knowledges.
Additionally, psychologists make a distinction between ethnocentrism and cultural
relativism, ethnocentrism being that you see something from your own cultural point of
view and having the tendency to see your own customs and beliefs as the ‘norm’ and
applying it to other cultures whereas cultural relativism is the idea we should study
behaviour in context of the culture in which it originates eg Afrocentrism.
One advantage of awareness of cultural bias in research is that it has helped within the
progress of diagnosing mental health disorders. This is because in early versions of the
American DSM, any non-American disorders were ignored but as research developed, they
had found disorders that were culturally specific such as ‘fear of the wind’ (China) or ‘brain
fog’ (West Africa). Therefore this has led to practical applications in expanding knowledge of
MHIs, thus providing a positive impact in the field of psychiatry and therapy to make
diagnosis and treatment more personalised.
Another advantage of awareness of culture bias in research is that it has allowed for the
encouragement of a more interconnected community within psychology. For example, the
ability to travel allows for more ease to understanding and seeing first-hand different
cultural behaviours. Additionally, the rise of international conferences allows for exchange
of ideas and spark new theories within psychological research. Therefore, these have helped
researchers expand their ability to sample participants globally and be able to apply and
adapt studies to different cultures, thus reducing ethnocentrism within psychological
research.
Another advantage of awareness of culture bias in research is that it has led to the
development of indigenous psychologies which are theories drawn explicitly on particular
experiences in different cultural contexts. For example, Afrocentrism- the idea that all black
people have African roots so theories need to recognise African context of behaviours when
making psychological conclusions. Therefore, this has led to the emergence of theories and
approaches such as the Emic Approach which are more relevant to the lives of people within
a certain background, thus making research more generalisable and adapted to people
within that cultures whilst considering individual differences and society norms.
One disadvantage of culture bias in psychology is that there is still a large divide in research
samples. For example, Smith and Bond found that 66% of research is conducted in USA, 32%
in Europe and only 2% in other countries. This shows that there is an unjust divide and
, sampling when it comes to psychological research which can raise methodological criticisms.
Therefore, this makes it harder to generalise results from USA studies to more collectivistic
cultures as they may behave differently, thus raising concerns on ethnocentrism within
today’s research that needs to be adapted to be more representative of the world’s
population.
Another disadvantage of culture bias in research is that these studies can amplify and
validate damaging stereotypes within society. For example, before WW1, US Army created
an IQ test which was applied to White-Americans but then also applied to African-Americans
without being adapted. This showed that African-Americans had lower IQ results whilst
using a White-American focused IQ test without considering cultural differences eg lack of
education facilities or accessibility. Therefore, this can emphasise the divide within society
with different cultures due to individualistic studies, thus can create a negative impact on
viewpoints in society on different races without adapting these studies to each culture and
making it seem like individualistic norms are the right norms that society should have.
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