ESSAY PLAN
sábado, 18 de junio de 2022 11:36
Culture Bias
AO1
-In psychology culture bias occurs in the same two forms as gender bias does:alpha and beta bias.
-Alpha bias is when a theory assumes cultural groups are profoundly different and that the recognition of
these differences must always be informed topsychological research
-Beta bias is when real cultural differences are ignored or minimised and all ppl are assumed to be the
same
-Resulting in universal research designs and conclusions that mistakenly assume all cultures are the same
-Another way to address culture bias is through the distiction of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism
-Ethnocentrism is when a person views the world from their own cultural perspective,believing this is
correct and this is the norm.
-Cultural relativism insists we must look at social and cultural context to properly understand behaviour
-Therefore any study which draws it's sample from only one culture (like american college students) and
then generalises these findings to everyone is suspect
AO3
One way to deal with
gender bias is to recognise when it occurs
-Eg. Smith et al found in their 1998 survey of Eurpoean social psychology text book that: 66% of the
studies were American,32% European and just 2% from the rest of the world
-This suggests much of psychology is severly unrepresentative and this can be greatly improved by
simply selecting different cultural groups to study
-Culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects by,for example,amplifying and validating
damaging stereotypes
-The US army used an iq test before WW1 which was biased towards the white majority
-Unsurprisngly the test showed African americans were at the bottom of the iq scale and
had a negative effect on the attitudes of American towards this group of people
-which highlights the negative impact culturally biased research can have
-Contemporary psychologists are significantly more well travelled and open minded and have a
Increased understanding of culture in both professional and personal levels
-For example international psychology conferences have increased the exchange of ideas
between psychologists which has enabled a more nuanced understanding of cultural
relativism
-This hegihtened awareness of cultural diversity has led to the development of 'indigenous
psychongy;drawing particularly on people's experiences in different cultural contexts
-For instance,Afrocentrism is a movement which suggets because all black people have
their roots from Africa,theories about them must recognise African context of behaviours
and attitudes
-This matters because it has led to the emergence of theories that are more relevant to the
lives and cultures not only of ppl in Africa, but also those far removed from their African
origins.
-The development of inidigeous psychology is often seen as a strength of cultural
relativism,but there are limitations as well:Are Afrocentric theories not aas biased as those
they claim to replace'
culture bias Page 1
sábado, 18 de junio de 2022 11:36
Culture Bias
AO1
-In psychology culture bias occurs in the same two forms as gender bias does:alpha and beta bias.
-Alpha bias is when a theory assumes cultural groups are profoundly different and that the recognition of
these differences must always be informed topsychological research
-Beta bias is when real cultural differences are ignored or minimised and all ppl are assumed to be the
same
-Resulting in universal research designs and conclusions that mistakenly assume all cultures are the same
-Another way to address culture bias is through the distiction of ethnocentrism and cultural relativism
-Ethnocentrism is when a person views the world from their own cultural perspective,believing this is
correct and this is the norm.
-Cultural relativism insists we must look at social and cultural context to properly understand behaviour
-Therefore any study which draws it's sample from only one culture (like american college students) and
then generalises these findings to everyone is suspect
AO3
One way to deal with
gender bias is to recognise when it occurs
-Eg. Smith et al found in their 1998 survey of Eurpoean social psychology text book that: 66% of the
studies were American,32% European and just 2% from the rest of the world
-This suggests much of psychology is severly unrepresentative and this can be greatly improved by
simply selecting different cultural groups to study
-Culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects by,for example,amplifying and validating
damaging stereotypes
-The US army used an iq test before WW1 which was biased towards the white majority
-Unsurprisngly the test showed African americans were at the bottom of the iq scale and
had a negative effect on the attitudes of American towards this group of people
-which highlights the negative impact culturally biased research can have
-Contemporary psychologists are significantly more well travelled and open minded and have a
Increased understanding of culture in both professional and personal levels
-For example international psychology conferences have increased the exchange of ideas
between psychologists which has enabled a more nuanced understanding of cultural
relativism
-This hegihtened awareness of cultural diversity has led to the development of 'indigenous
psychongy;drawing particularly on people's experiences in different cultural contexts
-For instance,Afrocentrism is a movement which suggets because all black people have
their roots from Africa,theories about them must recognise African context of behaviours
and attitudes
-This matters because it has led to the emergence of theories that are more relevant to the
lives and cultures not only of ppl in Africa, but also those far removed from their African
origins.
-The development of inidigeous psychology is often seen as a strength of cultural
relativism,but there are limitations as well:Are Afrocentric theories not aas biased as those
they claim to replace'
culture bias Page 1
