Essay
Psychology: Controversies: Cultural Bias
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A fully written essay exploring the impact of cultural bias on psychological research. Worth 20/25.
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By: augustinelu • 1 year ago
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Cultural BiasMost of psychological research has been carried out based on typical Western
ideas and viewpoints. However, researchers have tried to address this bias by
carrying out cross cultural research using different approaches. This essay will
discuss the extent to which cultural bias remains an issue in psychological
research.
Previously psychological research (PR) has failed to distinguish between
individualistic and collectivist cultures. Individualistic cultures are cultures that
emphasise personal achievement regardless of the expense to group goals,
resulting in a strong sense of competition whereas collectivist cultures
emphasise group, family and goals above individual needs. Myers and Diener is
an example of research that fails to distinguish between individualistic and
collectivist cultures. Myers and Diener found that people in individualistic
cultures reported higher SWB than people in collectivist cultures. However,
these results may be due to imposed ethic. Imposed ethic is where researchers
try to apply a theory or technique designed for one culture to another and this
is seen in Myers and Dieners research as SWB was measured using a
questionnaire designed by Western researchers.
However, it can be argued some researchers have tried to overcome cultural
bias by using different research approaches e.g. either adopting an ethic or
emic approach. An ethic approach seeks universals of behaviours and looks at
the behaviour of a different culture from outside that group whereas an emic
approach emphasises the uniqueness of every culture by specifically focusing
on a cultural phenomenon. Buss (1989) studied mate preferences in 37
different cultures in an attempt to find universal sex differences and attempted
to overcome cultural bias through having one researcher translated the
questionnaire from English to the native language, another researcher
translate results back and another resolve any discrepancies. Buss
demonstrates cross cultural research can be conducted in a way that isn't bias
and imposed ethic can be overcome to reduce culture bias and achieve true
universality.
It can be argued that historical context contributes to cultural bias in PR. Most
psychological research conducted uses WEIRD samples. WERID refers to
western, educated, industrialized, rich and democratic. The use of WEIRD
samples suggests psychological research is not only unrepresentative on a
global scale but also within the western culture. Sears’ research found that
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