Cultural Bias

Cultural Bias

Cultural bias = refers to a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through tge 'lens' of one's own culture.

In 1992, 64% of the world's 56000 psychology researchers were American, which restricted enquires to particular parts of the world. Psychologists claim to have discovered 'facts' about human behaviour the are 'universal'. 

Universality = characteristics of humans that can be applied to everyone, despite differences of experience and upbringing.

In reality, findings from studies only apply to particular groups of people who were studied. Critics have argued that mainstream psychology has ignored the issue of culture bias as an important influence on behaviour. 

If the 'norm' or 'standard' for a particular behaviour is judged only from the standpoint of one particular culture, then cultural differences in behaviour will be seen as 'abnormal'. 

Ethnocentrism = judging other cultures by the the standards and values of one's own culture. In it's extreme form it is the belief in the speriority of one's own culture which may lead to predujice and dicrimination towards other…