Outline and evaluate cultural bias in psychology

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  • Outline and evaluate culture bias in psychology
    • the tendency to judge people on your own cultural assumptions
      • can lead to cultural differences being distorted or ignored. Mainly studied in America so psych has ignored the role of culture in human behaviour
    • Ethnocentrism
      • refers to the use of ourown cultural group as a basis for judgements about other groups
      • e.g Ainsworth's strange situation, only reflects the norms and values of American culture. A lot of German children were classed as insecure avoidant and mothers as distant, rather than encouraging independence
      • imposed etic, Ainsworth assumed that the US based model for classifying attachment types was the norm
        • imposed own cultural view on the understandin of the world
    • cultural relativism
      • behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates
      • there are no universal norms or standards common to all cultures
      • Berry proposed an emic approach, where behaviours specific to the culture are researched within it.
    • Evaluation
      • scientific justification to deny people from certain cultural groups opportunities
        • found through the US army IQ test before the first world war, African Americans were at the bottom of the scale with the lowest mental age. This had a profound effect on the American's attitude towards the Africans
          • this is a problem because the research may have damaging effects on the lives and prospects of a range of people in the real world.
        • It can be reduced through Afrocentrism, a movement which rejects European values as universalistic
      • Cultutal relativism and the emic approach assumes there is no such thing as universal human behaviour
        • Ekman found that basic facial expressions for human emotions are all the same. Attachment behaviours like interactional synchrocity also appear to be universal
          • suggests that to understand human behaviour, behaviour needs to be studied in both universal groups and individually
        • can be combined with using indigenous researchers in cultural research. Makes it possible to study human behaviour while not ignoring cultural norms
      • Cultural differences are often overstated. Psychs distinguished between individualistic cutlure and collectivist culture. Needs of individuals are put before the group or needs of the group are put above the individual
        • However, in the modern age of global communica-tion and inter-connected people, it could be argued that this distinction is lazy and over simplistic.
          • therefore, cultural bias in research is less of an issue

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