9.1.1
Culture Bias
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Cultural Bias
Culture is the set of norms, moral values, behavioural norms, social roles, customs and traditions of a group of people.

Culture and psychology
- Psychology was developed in Western cultures. Psychologists typically used people that were available to them in studies - people from the same culture. This means that there has historically been a lack of research for comparing people from different cultures.
- As a consequence, various cultural perspectives and differences have been ignored or underrepresented.

Possible explanations
- There are various possible reasons for not having studied other cultures:
- Psychologists may have viewed other non-Western cultures as being 'primitive' or not worthy of study.
- Cross-cultural research is expensive, time consuming, and demands many resources. This makes it challenging to conduct.

Possible explanations cont.
- It could also be that psychologists made the assumption that other cultures were the same as their own. In other words, behaviours and norms had the same meaning and there was no point in studying them.
Research Methods: Etic
Research methods can cause cultural bias. Berry (1969) identified two approaches in research: etic and emic, both of which could cause cultural bias.

Etic and emic research
- There are two approaches in research and both are liable to cultural bias.
- Etic research is when research based on one culture is generalised and applied to all cultures.
- Emic research is based on studying a specific culture.

Etic research
- Etic research assumes that the results and conclusions drawn from one culture can be universally applied.
- Universality is the concept where one set of rules/norms/theories are used to explain everything.

Etic strengths
- Humans from various cultures do have similarities.
- Human physiology is fairly consistent across all cultures.
- Certain behaviours are also universal: language development, aggression levels, and cognitive development.

Etic weaknesses
- The vast majority of scientific research involves taking samples of a whole population.
- For this reason, it is challenging to apply the principles and conclusions drawn from these studies to all cultures.
- So researchers can be biased because of an imposed etic.
Research Methods: Emic
Research methods can cause cultural bias. There are two approaches in research: etic and emic, both of which could lead to cultural bias.

Emic research
- The results and conclusions drawn from these studies are not to be applied to all cultures.
- The reason for this is that the focus is to study the behaviour within the group and between groups of people within the culture.

Emic strengths
- By doing these studies, researchers can avoid cultural bias and bias because of imposed etic.
- They are not trying to generate universal laws.

Emic weaknesses
- But bias can still happen.
- This is due to researchers over-emphasising the differences between the cultural groups and not looking at the differences within the cultural groups.

Example study
- For example:
- A study that claims ‘people from country Z are kinder than people from country W’.
- There are most likely people from country Z that are not very kind and people from country W that are kind.
- It is important to note that the original conclusion was based on an average.
- So it is important to not forget the variation within the same group. There are always going to be individual differences.
1Social Influence
1.1Social Influence
2Memory
2.1Memory
3Attachment
3.1Attachment
4(2026 Exams) Psychopathology
4.1Psychopathology
5(2027 Exams) Clinical Psychology & Mental Health
5.1Clinical Psychology & Mental Health
6Approaches in Psychology
6.1Approaches in Psychology
6.2Comparison of Approaches (A2 only)
7Biopsychology
7.1Biopsychology
8Research Methods
8.1Research Methods
8.2Scientific Processes
8.3Data Handling & Analysis
9Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)
9.1Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)
10Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)
10.1Relationships: Sexual Relationships (A2 only)
10.2Relationships: Romantic Relationships (A2 only)
10.3(2026 Exams) Relationships: Virtual (A2 only)
10.4(2027 Exams) Relationships: Online (A2 only)
11Option 1: Gender (A2 only)
11.1(2026 Exams) Gender (A2 only)
11.2(2027 Exams) Gender (A2 only)
12Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)
12.1Cognition & Development (A2 only)
13Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)
13.1Schizophrenia: Diagnosis (A2 only)
13.2Schizophrenia: Treatment (A2 only)
14Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)
14.1Eating Behaviour (A2 only)
15Option 2: Stress (A2 only)
15.1Stress (A2 only)
16Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)
16.1Aggression: Physiological (A2 only)
16.2Aggression: Social Psychological (A2 only)
17Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)
17.1Forensic Psychology (A2 only)
18Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)
18.1Addiction (A2 only)
18.2Treating Addiction (A2 only)
Jump to other topics
1Social Influence
1.1Social Influence
2Memory
2.1Memory
3Attachment
3.1Attachment
4(2026 Exams) Psychopathology
4.1Psychopathology
5(2027 Exams) Clinical Psychology & Mental Health
5.1Clinical Psychology & Mental Health
6Approaches in Psychology
6.1Approaches in Psychology
6.2Comparison of Approaches (A2 only)
7Biopsychology
7.1Biopsychology
8Research Methods
8.1Research Methods
8.2Scientific Processes
8.3Data Handling & Analysis
9Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)
9.1Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)
10Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)
10.1Relationships: Sexual Relationships (A2 only)
10.2Relationships: Romantic Relationships (A2 only)
10.3(2026 Exams) Relationships: Virtual (A2 only)
10.4(2027 Exams) Relationships: Online (A2 only)
11Option 1: Gender (A2 only)
11.1(2026 Exams) Gender (A2 only)
11.2(2027 Exams) Gender (A2 only)
12Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)
12.1Cognition & Development (A2 only)
13Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)
13.1Schizophrenia: Diagnosis (A2 only)
13.2Schizophrenia: Treatment (A2 only)
14Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)
14.1Eating Behaviour (A2 only)
15Option 2: Stress (A2 only)
15.1Stress (A2 only)
16Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)
16.1Aggression: Physiological (A2 only)
16.2Aggression: Social Psychological (A2 only)
17Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)
17.1Forensic Psychology (A2 only)
18Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)
18.1Addiction (A2 only)
18.2Treating Addiction (A2 only)
Practice questions on Culture Bias
Can you answer these? Test yourself with free interactive practice on Seneca — used by over 10 million students.
- 1Which of these is NOT part of culture? Multiple choice
- 2
- 3Possible reasons for a lack of cross-cultural research.Fill in the list
- 4Why is cross-cultural research challenging to construct?Fill in the list
- 5What is universality?Multiple choice
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