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Description
Flashcards by Ellie Harvey, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Ellie Harvey
about 2 years ago
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| Question | Answer |
| What is cultural bias? | Cultural bias is the tendency to ignore cultural differences and opt for a view that interprets all phenomena through the "lens" of our own culture. It in an extreme form views deviation from our own culture's norms as abnormal or inferior |
| What is ethnocentrism? | This is the belief that your own culture is superior - judging other cultures by the values and norms of your own culture It often sees behaviours that don't conform as underdeveloped, unsophisticated or deficient. |
| One example of ethnocentrism | Ainsworth's strange situation is an example - which only reflected the norms and values of American culture but assumed this was universal. Her characterisation of "types" based on separation anxiety has led to misunderstandings and misinterpretation of the child rearing practices of other countries. For example, it meant German parents were perceived as cold hearted and rejecting rather than valuing independence. |
| What is cultural relavatism? | It suggests that norms, values, moral standards and ethics are only meaningful and understood when looked at within that specific social and cultural context. |
| Who drew the distinction between emic and etic? | John Berry |
| What is an emic approach? | An emic approach functions within certain cultures and identifies behaviour specific to it |
| What is an etic approach? | An etic approach looks at behaviours from outside a culture and tries to apply them as if they were universal |
| One example of an imposed etic | Ainsworth's attachment types - they impose a US understanding of norms onto the rest of the world despite cultural differences in child rearing |
| One evaluation of cultural bias (Classic studies + counter) | One issue with cultural bias is that many classic studies that have significant influence are actually culturally biased. This is a feature in studies that build the foundations of knowledge on social influence such as Asch and Milgram who both used all US participants. Replications done of the studies in other cultures show that culture leads to differences in SI behaviour that was assumed to be universal. For example, a variation of Asch's study in a collectivist culture found significantly higher levels of conformity. This means most of our understanding of social influence is only applicable to individualistic cultures. However, you could argue that the individualistic-collectivist culture dichotomy is no longer needed in an era of increasing media globalisation. People often argue that places like the UK and US value independance and places like China, Japan or India vaue the needs of the group resulting in behavioural differences. But a meta-analysis done by Takano and Osaka found that 14 of 15 studies comparing Japan and the US found no difference |
| One evaluation of cultural bias (Implications) | An area where cultural bias creates issues is in its implications on real life. For example, there is a significant bias in diagnosing mental disorders - Cochrane and Sasidharan found African- Caribbean immigrants were 7x more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness. This has led to criticisms of the validity of the DSM (US) and ICD (Europe) which may prompt higher diagnosis rates for those born outside the dominant culture. The DSM tried to correct this by using culturally bound syndromes "CBS" which in themselves suggest the ethnocentric nature of the DSM. It also illustrates that applying ideas of mental disorder as if they are universal shouldn't be done as issues such as anorexia are practically non-existent in collectivist cultures. Therefore, cultural bias - particularly ethnocentrism has led to discriminatory practice in mental illness, meaning "other" cultures are judged as abnormal. |
| One evaluation of cultural bias (Relavatism VS Universality) | On one hand Berry's use of the idea of an "imposed etic" brings awareness and caution around applying values and laws outside the culture it was found in. However, some research has found certain behaviours that appear to be universal. For example, Ekman looked at human emotions and found innate expressions such as disgust that are identical across the world. This implies that understanding of behaviour requires study of the variation in cultures but also the study of universals. |
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