- Psychology claims to unearth universal truths but in reality, findings may only apply to the particular groups who were studied
- Wrongly assumed that western findings could be applied all over the world
- g. conformity (Asch) and obedience (Milgram) produced different results when replicated outside of US
- Standard/norm for particular behaviour judged only from one culture = cultural differences seen as abnormal/unusual
- Ethnocentrism – belief in the superiority of your own culture
- View that behaviour that doesn’t conform to the Western model is deficient
- Leads to prejudice/discrimination
- g. Ainsworth’s strange situation
- American norms/values
- Separation anxiety defining factor/secure = ideal type
- German mothers labelled cold/rejecting
- Inappropriate measure for non-US children
- Cultural relativism
- May help reduce bias
- Facts/things may only make sense the perspective of the culture within which they were discovered
- Berry (1969)
- Etic approach
- Looking at behaviours outside of a culture and identifying universal ones
- Emic approach
- Looking at behaviour within a culture and identifying culturally specific ones
- Imposed etic
- g. Ainsworth studied behaviours within a single culture and assumed findings could be applies universally
- Distinction between individualism and collectivism
- Value of the individual/independence vs value of the group/interdependence
- Lazy/simplistic distinction that no longer applies
- Takano and Osaka (1999)
- 14/15 studies comparing the US and Japan found no evidence of a distinction between the two culture types
- Could suggest that this form of cultural bias is less of an issue than it once was
- Recognition of both cultural relativism and universals
- ‘Imposed etic’ shows culturally specific nature of psychology
- Should not assume that all Psychology is culturally relative and there is no such thing as universal behaviour
- Ekman (1989)
- Basic facial expressions for emotions are the same all over the human and animal world
- Some features of human attachment are universal
- Imitation
- Interactional synchrony
- Full understanding of human behaviour requires the study of both universals and variation among individuals and groups
- Cross-cultural research is prone to demand characteristics
- For research in Western cultures, participants familiarity with the aims and objectives of scientific enquiry is assumed
- In culture without historical experience of research, local populations may be more affected by demand characteristics
- Unfamiliarity with the research tradition threatens the validity of the outcome
