How many marks out of 4? Why?

Maisie’s answer Examiners comment This response earns 2 marks. It focuses on one type of gender bias and then explains why it is an issue in terms of generalizability. The examples do not really add to the answer, especially when they make the same kind of point. Ciaran’s answer Examiners comment This is a 4-mark response. It helps that Ciaran has included two types of gender bias as this gives him more to write about. The issues around both types are explained as required and indeed, his final point takes the explanation further and is a good place to end.

Cultural bias in psychology By the end of the lesson, you will have: Defined Cultural bias and its different types Explored the implications of cultural bias for psychological research and society Used examples from a range of topics to illustrate different types of culture bias in psychological theories and research studies

Ainsworth: Strange situation Some critics argue that Psychological research often ignores differences between cultures, developing theories that are entirely based on Western cultures like the United States. This lowers the overall VALIDITY of the theory and research. In 1992, 64% of the world’s psychology researchers were American. In Baron and Byrne’s 1991 textbook on social psychology, 94% of the studies were conducted in North America. Statistics such as these would suggest that, as well as being male-dominated discipline, psychology is the study of white American males.   Can you recall any studies from Yr1 psychology that can criticised for being culturally biased? Asch: Conformity Ainsworth: Strange situation Milgram: Obedience With the person sitting beside, discuss: What is cultural bias? Recall, redefine and apply alpha and beta bias to cultural bias

Examples of cultural bias in psychology Cultural bias can be defined as the act of interpreting and judging behaviour and psychological characteristics of another culture by the standards of one’s own culture. As such cultural biases produce differences that don’t actually exist. Social influence: Cross-cultural replications of obedience and conformity studies have revealed wide differences in resistance to social influence. For example, when ASCH and MILGRAM’s studies into conformity and obedience are replicated in other parts of the world, very different results are often found (Kilham and Mann, 1974). It can be argued therefore that this research only reflects the cultural norms of the place of the original study. Perhaps Americans are just more conformist and obedient compared to people from other cultures. Examples of cultural bias in psychology Abnormality: the increased diagnosis of mental disorder in immigrants may reflect prejudice or misunderstanding during diagnosis. Psychometrics testing: IQ and personality tests have been culturally biased in terms of content, phrasing, application and assessment.

Types/forms of cultural bias : The distinction between ETIC and EMIC. An ETIC approach looks at behaviour from the outside of a given culture and attempts to describe behaviour that are UNIVERSAL. An EMIC approach looks within / inside cultures and identifies behaviours that are SPECIFIC to that culture. Ainsworth’s research could be an example of an IMPOSED ETIC, where the researcher imposes their own culture or cultural understanding upon the rest of the world, assuming that it is the norm for everyone. Ainsworth studied behaviour within one culture and ASSUMED her ideals about attachment types can be applied universally. Psychology is often guilty of making imposed etics, developing universal models and theories of human behaviour which come about through studying only one particular culture. Psychologists should be more mindful of CULTURAL RELATIVISM – the idea that the things that are observed in research may only make sense (i.e. they are only RELATIVE) from the perspective of the culture being observed – they cannot be applied to different cultures.

Task You have a couple of tasks to complete The PHG worksheet created by me  The PHG worksheets created by them