Psychology
Culture Bias and Sub-Culture Bias
Culture bias refers to the tendency to interpret and understand behaviors, beliefs, and values based on one's own cultural background, often leading to misunderstandings or misinterpretations of other cultures. Sub-culture bias, on the other hand, involves the same biases but within smaller, more specific cultural groups or subcultures. Both biases can impact psychological research, assessment, and treatment.
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5 Key excerpts on "Culture Bias and Sub-Culture Bias"
eBook - PDFCross-Cultural Psychology
Research and Applications
- John W. Berry, Ype H. Poortinga, Seger M. Breugelmans, Athanasios Chasiotis, David L. Sam(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
We mention five examples: 1. “Cross-cultural research in psychology is the explicit, systematic comparison of psychological variables under different cultural conditions in order to specify the antecedents and processes that mediate the emergence of behaviour differ-ences” (Eckensberger, 1972 , p. 100). 2. “Cross-cultural psychology is the empirical study of members of various culture groups who have had different experiences that lead to predictable and signifi-cant differences in behavior. In the majority of such studies, the groups under www.cambridge.org/berry 4 Cross-Cultural Psychology study speak different languages and are governed by different political units” (Brislin, Lonner and Thorndike, 1973 , p. 5). 3. “Cross-cultural research is any type of research on human behavior that compares behavior of interest across two or more cultures” (Matsumoto, 1996 , p. 5). 4. “Cultural psychology [is] the study of the culture’s role in the mental life of hu-man beings” (Cole, 1996 , p. 1). 5. Cultural psychology “has a distinctive subject matter (psychological diversity, rather than psychological uniformity); it aims to reassess the uniformitarian principle of psychic unity and develop a credible theory of psychological plu-ralism” (Shweder, 2007 , p. 827). In most of these definitions, the term culture appears, referring to cultural con-ditions or cultural groups. For the time being, we can define culture as “the shared way of life of a group of people”; in Chapter 10, we will consider more elaborate meanings of the term. Each of the five definitions highlights a particular feature of culture. In the first, the key idea is that of identifying cause and effect relationships between culture and behavior (“. . . specify the antecedents and processes that mediate. . .”); the second is more concerned with identifying the kinds of cultural experiences (“. . . speak different languages” etc.) that may be factors in promoting human behavioral diversity across cultures.
eBook - ePub- Phil Banyard(Author)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
4 Bias in psychology
Introduction
It is interesting that we have a title such as ‘bias in psychology’. It seems obvious to me that everything in psychology contains some sort of bias or other, but what is remarkable is that this bias is often not acknowledged. Perhaps this is because one feature of the scientific approach in psychology is the attempt to be objective. To be objective is usually taken to mean standing apart from the subject that is being studied, and being free from bias. This might be possible if we are studying chemicals or micro-organisms, but is it possible to be objective when we are studying the behaviour and experience of people? It is difficult, if not impossible, to stand apart from the subject that is being studied when the subject is human behaviour and experience and you are a human being. In this chapter we will look at some examples of bias in psychology, and pay particular attention to issues around cultural diversity and gender. We will start by looking at the concept of ethnocentrism.Ethnocentrism
One source of bias in psychology comes from the fact that we tend to see things from our own viewpoint and the viewpoint of people like us. In our everyday lives we are asked to make judgments about people and events. We have a range of opinions that we are prepared to offer to other people when asked, and sometimes when not asked. In our judgments we are often inclined to show a little egocentrism (seeing things from our own particular viewpoint to the exclusion of others). Another bias that can affect our judgments is ethnocentrism
eBook - PDFCulture across the Curriculum
A Psychology Teacher's Handbook
- Kenneth D. Keith(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
This process becomes somewhat www.wilderdom.com/personality/intelligenceCulturalBias , , more complex when the population is culturally diverse, and the aim is to develop or use a psychological measure that is not culturally biased. In this chapter, we will emphasize the importance of culture when it comes to psychological measurements and identify some key measurement concepts in this context. Taking into account culture in psychological measurements brings with it a whole host of methodological issues that go beyond monocultural studies. Due to space constraints, we expect that students are already familiar with basic measurement theory (classical test theory) and its key concepts (reliability and validity). In the end, we also provide examples of teaching activities that can be used to explain cultural concepts in psychological measurement. The Role of Culture in Psychological Measurement The twenty-fi rst century is an era of increased cultural diversity due to globalization and greater facility of traveling, living, and working else-where. Given the fact that societies have become more multicultural, it becomes crucial to develop psychological measurements that are culturally inclusive. Another important aspect is the fact that an increasing amount of research is today directed at understanding the role of culture in in fl u-encing di ff erent aspects of people ’ s behavior, thought, and attitude. In fact, one of the main quests of cultural and cross-cultural psychology is to gather evidence from di ff erent cultures to better understand which aspects of the human mind and behavior are universal or culture speci fi c. How-ever, in order to draw scienti fi cally valid conclusions about cultural di ff er-ences, the measurement of people ’ s minds and behaviors must be accurate, which is not as straightforward as it is for monocultural studies.
eBook - PDF- Bernard C. Beins, Maureen A. McCarthy(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Culture. We can identify two distinct components of culture. Physical culture relates to objects like tools and buildings. Subjective culture, which is of interest to psycholo- gists, refers to such things as familial patterns, language habits, attire, and a wide range of other characteristics that pass from one generation to the next (Betancourt & Lôpez, 1993; Matsumoto, 1994). Other psychologists have defined culture somewhat differently from Matsumoto (1994), involving the notion that culture is not something “out there,” but rather that it is a cognitive response a person makes on the basis of his or her interactions with others (Segall, Lonner, & Berry, 1998). For example, it seems unlikely that Americans are overtly conscious of being Americans on a daily basis; this categorization makes sense only when they want to make some Culture—The customs, behaviors, attitudes, and values (Psychological Culture) and the objects and implements (Physical Culture) that can be used to identify and character- ize a population. 336 Chapter 14 • People Are Different: Considering Cultural and Individual Differences in Research contrast. In their communities, they are simply who they are. Similarly, think about Mexican citizens. People living in Mexico City feel no need to identify themselves as Mexicans or as Hispanics because on a daily basis, it is not a relevant consideration. On the other hand, when people live in a country different from that of their birth, they would likely describe themselves according to place of birth because that information might be relevant to understanding their behavior and because it draws a contrast between them and others. Race and Ethnicity. Race and ethnicity are also difficult concepts. When discussing race, researchers (and people in general) often think of biological characteristics. People who make distinctions this way hope to use an objective, biological means to categorize people.
- Ype H. Poortinga(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
Baldwin et al. (2006, p. 24) went a step further and argued that “culture” is to be seen as “an empty sign that people fill with meaning from their own academic backgrounds or personal experiences.” An uncomfortable consequence is that when the term “culture” is used, one cannot know what it refers to. A need for a concept of “culture” is widely acknowledged, also in (c)cp (Jahoda, 2012). Richerson and Boyd (2005, p. 18) formulate it succinctly: “Culture exists.” However, if a concept cannot be defined, it acquires the same status as a deity in a religion; even though its existence cannot be captured by any measurement method, for the believer the 13 Concept and Method in Cross-Cultural and Cultural Psychology interventions of the deity are evident. To reflect its questionable conceptual status, in this Element the term “culture” has been placed between quotation marks. In the approaches to “culture” found in (c)cp, some major categories can be distinguished. One distinction is between “culture” as internal or as external to the person (Berry et al., 2011, chap. 1). Climate, affluence, mode of subsistence (how people make a living), and political organization of the society are aspects of the external context that affect a person’ s behavior repertoire. Much of the language, religion, beliefs, and habits in a person’ s social environment are internalized during ontogenetic development and can be qualified as internal context. A second distinction – much discussed toward the end of the twentieth century – is between universalist and relativist approaches. In universalism, the focus is on how different ecological and social environments affect common human psychological functions and processes, and how they lead to, enable, or facilitate differences in behavior repertoires. In relativism, the focus is on how psychological functions and processes themselves are the outcome of inter- actions between organism and context.
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