Starter: think back to last year’s content… Where did most of the studies we looked at take place?

America, the USA, The United States… In 1992, 64% of the world’s Psychology researchers were American. In a 1991 textbook on social psychology, 94% of the studies were conducted in North America. What does this imply about Psychological research?

Culture Bias In psychology we seek universality (findings will generalise globally) but bias is inevitable Culture Bias A tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one’s own culture.

The Chitling Test of Intelligence Have a go at the Chitling test of intelligence. What problems do you encounter? What point do you think the researcher Dove is making about IQ testing? http://www.wilderdom.com/personality/intelligenceChitlingTestShort.html

The Chitling Intelligence Test (1968) Answers How did you do? 1. (c) 8. (a) 2. (c) 9. (c) 3. (c) 10. (d) 4. (c) 11. (d) 5. (c) 12. (a) 6. (c) 13. (b) 7. (c) 14. (a) 15. (b) The Chitling Intelligence Test is an example of a culturally biased test that tends to favour African Americans. People of other cultures traditionally underperform. What does this imply about British IQ testing?

Ethnocentrism This is a form of cultural bias where researchers favour the norms and expectations of one culture and attempt to generalise this to other cultures. Research is ethnocentric if it only focuses on participants from one culture. The idea is that ones own culture is the norm Ainsworth's strange situation is an example of this. The SS has been described as an imposed etic

Emic and Etic approach in psychology Berry (1969) drew a distinction between emic constructs and etic constructs. (universal or specific) Emic constructs are specific to a given culture, and so vary from one culture to another. Etic constructs refer to universal factors that hold across all cultures.

Imposed etic An imposed etic is a technique or theory that is rooted in a researcher’s own culture, such as an intelligence test, and then used to study other cultures. (identifies behaviours that are universal) Psychologists have studied obedience, moral development, and attachment in various cultures using measures designed within our own culture. This includes measures such as Kohlberg’s moral dilemmas and the Strange Situation. The methods used to diagnose and treat mental disorders are also imposed etics.

Imposed Emic

Respecting Cultural Relativism helps to avoid cultural bias Things discovered may only make sense from the perspective of the culture in which they are discovered. There are no rights or wrongs – consider the behaviour of the individual within their culture Being able to recognise We need to recognise that what is a norm in one culture differs from norms in other cultures. This is only one way of avoiding cultural bias in research. The cultural relativism of the definitions of abnormality Margaret Mead is an example of this. We can argue that Margaret Mead's research may not have considered the contexts of the behaviours she saw. She tended to emphasise the differences in gender across cultures and in doing so ignored the universals.

Match the key terms with the definitions The beliefs and customs that a group of people share, such as child-rearing practices. Emic Constructs The term used to describe the belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic and cultural group. Our own cultural perspective is taken as a standard by which we measure other cultures. Etic Constructs Analyses of behaviour focuses on the universal of human behaviour, universal factors that hold across all cultures. Looking at behaviour from outside of the culture. Ethnocentrism Are specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another, look at behaviour from the inside of the cultural system. Culture Cultural Relativism Behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates. Challenge: Psychology has been argued to take an _________________ approach because…

Match the key terms with the definitions The beliefs and customs that a group of people share, such as child-rearing practices. Emic Constructs Etic Constructs The term used to describe the belief in the superiority of one’s own ethnic and cultural group. Our own cultural perspective is taken as a standard by which we measure other cultures. Analyses of behaviour focuses on the universal of human behaviour, universal factors that hold across all cultures. Looking at behaviour from outside of the culture. Ethnocentrism Are specific to a given culture and vary from one culture to another, look at behaviour from the inside of the cultural system. Culture Cultural Relativism Behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates. Challenge: Psychology has been argued to take an imposed etic approach because it argues that theories/concepts are universal despite research being conducted using emic constructs within a specific culture. BERRY (1969)

Let’s Apply it! Think of research that you have studied over the course. Annotate it with your ideas of how it relates to culture bias. Forensic psychology: defining crime Schizophrenia: cultural bias in defining and measuring crime Gender: cultural influences in gender Ainsworth: strange situation – attachment Humanistic theories of motivation

Forensic psychology: defining crime: cultural relativism should apply Schizophrenia: cultural bias in defining and measuring crime Gender: cultural influences in gender – how western stereotype does not generalise across the world Ainsworth: strange situation – attachment Humanistic theories of motivation include the need for achievement as a motivating factor, but this may relate to individualist cultures only.

DSM - A specific example - depression Cross-cultural research in psychology shows that there are substantial variations in depressive experience and disorder. Different historical and cultural traditions frame depressive experience and disorders. Depression may be experienced largely in somatic terms rather than with sadness or guilt. Complaints of nerves and headaches (in Latino and Mediterranean cultures), of weakness, tiredness, or imbalance (in Chinese and Asian cultures) problems of the "heart" (in Middle Eastern cultures) may express depressive experiences.

Focus on the Strange Situation Remind yourself of the Ainsworth Strange Situation & Van Ijzendoorn’s Cross-Cultural research on attachment. 1.According to SS research, how do Japanese & German children differ from American children? 2. Briefly explain why using Ainsworth’s strange situation technique to study cross cultural differences in attachment is criticised as being an imposed etic and therefore suffers from ethnocentric bias. 3.In what way could the imposed etic that occurs when the SS is used with non-US samples lead to misleading conclusions? 4.“The meaning of a behaviour can only be understood with reference to its cultural context.” Explain this statement, referring to the cross-cultural SS research.

Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Conducted in America, Ainsworth tested children’s anxiety on separation from a primary care giver. She found that the ideal attachment type was secure in which the infant displayed moderate levels of anxiety when separated with a primary care giver. However differences in childrearing strategies were debated.

Milgram In his study testing American males, Milgram found that 65% of participants, although unwilling, administered a full scale of what the participant believed to be real electric-shocks. Milgram claimed that such high levels of obedience were due to ‘the power of the social situation’. There may be many factors, specific to America, which may have resulted in such findings, for example, Americans may be have more respect for authority figures as they value the police system, or, they may be more obedient due to American schooling and so on.

Margaret Mead & the Samoa (1928) One final consideration, in relation to Margaret Mead (1935) observed three tribes in New Guinea Mead concluded that the Mundugumor tribe were all aggressive (masculine quality) regardless of sex. Neither gender gave much attention to child rearing. Arapesh were all warm, emotional, and non-aggressive (feminine qualities). Husbands and wives shared everything, including pregnancy: the men took to bed during childbirth! The Tchambuli exhibited a reversal of our own gender roles. Women reared the children but also looked after commerce outside the tribe. The men spent their time in social activities, and were more emotional and artistic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw1NZjNkAYI

Evaluation of cultural bias Can be used for unethical reasons – The use of IQ tests to show African Americans at the bottom of the IQ scale. (consequences of bias) Psychological research is dominated by the West, particularly America – therefore this viewpoint dominates. Smith and Bon found that 66% of studies into social psychology were American. Awareness of cultural differences has helped in the diagnosis of mental illness. – The DSM IV included an appendix on culture bound syndromes such as amafufunyana (Violent behaviour caused by spirit possession) and Koro (a fear of genitals retracting and disappearing (shrinking penis syndrome) Bias in research methods (unrepresentative globally, but also within cultures) The worldwide psychology community

Derived etics Berry (1969) proposed that an alternative method of study might be used, one that is similar to the techniques used by anthropologists. He called this a derived etic, where a series of emic studies take place in a local setting conducted by local researchers using local techniques. Such studies can build up a picture of human behaviour in a manner similar to the ethnographic approach taken by anthropologists. This is the study of different cultures through the use of comparisons. By making comparisons between cultures we can learn more about a target culture, rather like the way that comparative psychology can enlighten us about human behaviour. We can see the above approach in action in the area of diagnosing mental disorders. DSM- IV (APA, 1994), which is American based, focuses mainly on mental disorders that are common in the Western world, although there is a short appendix in DSM on culture- bound syndromes found in other parts of the world. Kleinman and Cohen (1997, p.76) dismissed this appendix as “little more than a sop thrown to cultural psychiatrists and psychiatric anthropologists”. They pointed out that detailed work in several non-Western cultures had uncovered many disorders totally ignored by DSM-IV. Here are a few examples: pa-fend (fear of wind) found in China amafufunyana (violent behaviour caused by spirit possession) found in South Africa brain fag (problems in concentrating and thinking produced by excessive study—one to avoid!) found in West Africa.

Exam focus Explain what is meant by cultural bias in psychology (2) Explain the terms ethnocentrism and cultural relativism (4)

Q1 Cultural bias in psychology occurs when psychologists of one culture make assumptions about the behaviour of people from another culture based on their own cultural practices and norms.

Q2 In psychology, cultural bias can be in the form of ethnocentrism. This is where a psychologist will favour the norms and behaviours of one culture and generalise them to other cultures. Cultural bias can also be that researchers fail to judge behaviour in the specific cultural context. Therefore may judge behaviour as abnormal when it is perfectly acceptable in that culture. This is known as cultural relativism.