Culture bias within Psychology

Cultural Bias exists when ideas from one culture (often westernised) are used to evaluate the same phenomena within another culture (eastern/tribal communities). It’s a recognised problem in psychology since Binet & Simons (1916/1973) intelligence tests, which overestimated/underestimated people’s abilities, sometimes disadvantaging people. Psychology has moved forward with its ecological understanding, years need to be invested learning the language, culture and motivation of natives in different parts of the world. In doing so, psychological cross-cultural studies can be justified as ecologically valid (Levinson 2012).

Item bias occurs when words have different meanings across cultures. This occurs either in translation, when words are unknown or have ambiguous meanings (Van de Vijer & Leung, 1997). Ekman (1972) conducted research into the universality of facial expressions in Papua New Guinea. From investing time in the culture, he realised there was no local word for ‘disgust’, and therefore adapted question items. Without spending time and researching into the culture, participants would be confused and seem to not recognise ‘disgust’, when really their knowledge would’ve been overestimated. Likewise, if a similar word does exist, the translation could be incorrect (Barger, Nabi, & Hong, 2010); for example, “distress” can be translated to “I feel blue” which isn’t an accurate translation (Shimazu, Bin Nordin, Dollard, & Oakman 2014), and causes translation back translation issues.

With increased understanding to avoid item bias, there is no excuse for cross-cultural research to not pay time and attention to ensuring translation is accurate and understood in new research culture. Research into other cultures is increasing in importance with the surge of refugees coming into Europe with mental health issues that shouldn’t be assessed as a western view.

References:

Binet, A., & Simon, T. (1973). The development of intelligence in children. New York, NY: Arno. (Original work published 1916)

Barger, B., Nabi, R., & Hong, L. Y. (2010). Standard back-translation procedures may not capture proper emotion concepts: A case study of Chinese disgust terms. Emotion, 10, 703-711.

Ekman, P. (1972). Universal and cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. In J. R. Cole (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1971: Vol. 19 (pp. 207- 283). Lincoln, NE: Nebraska University Press

Levinson, S. (2012). The Original Sin of Cognitive Science. Topics In Cognitive Science, 4(3), 396-403. doi: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01195.x

Shimazu, A., Bin Nordin, R., Dollard, M., & Oakman, J. (2014). Psychosocial Factors at Work in the Asia Pacific. New York: Springer.

Van de Vijver, F. J. R., & Leung, K. (1997). Cross-cultural psychology series, Vol. 1. Methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc.

Cultural Transmission, Social Class, Division & Inequalities

Cultural transmission (CT) is the reproduction of a culture from one generation to another (Trommsdorff, 2008). Parents transmit values to their children that they deem important to survive and adapt to their Social Class (SC) (Hughes, et al., 2006). As parents are within a child’s microsystem, they are an important influence on children’s cultural development (Berry, et al., 2011), as their first experience of the world will come from their parent’s views and cultural norms; known as vertical transmission (Bisin & Verdier 2001).

SC is the division of groups of people based on their social/economic status, often linking to income, education and job (Sutton & Douglas 2013). Youniss (1994) argues to fully understand vertical CT it needs to be assessed societally; to explain how parents decide what is vital to preserving the culture within their SC and equip children with qualities and values required in their future. Mortimer, et al., (2017) looked at social reproduction of inequality, finding higher class cultures prioritise educational attainment and high grades as they secure the success of future SC position. Similarly, Calarco (2014) found differences in transmissions between middle and working-class parents about classroom behaviour; leading to the achievement gap issue. Higher social class has also been found to predict increased unethical behaviour. (Piff et al.,2012)

Parents partake in CT because of their ideals, norms, values and pride in keeping the culture alive. This can produce out-dated views and societal issues like, school bullying; due to ignorance and prejudice (for example if a child is seen as ‘stupid’). In later life this can progress to an ‘us and them culture’ within companies (Case, 2016) impacting company success.

References:

Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Breugelmans, S. M., Chasiotis, A., & Sam, D. (2011). Cross-cultural psychology: Theory and applications (3rd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bisin, A., & Verdier, T. (2001). The Economics of Cultural Transmission and the Dynamics of Preferences. Journal Of Economic Theory, 97(2), 298-319. doi: 10.1006/jeth.2000.2678

Calarco, J. (2014). Coached for the Classroom Parents’ Cultural Transmission and Children’s Reproduction of Educational Inequalities. American Sociological Review, Vol 79(5). doi: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0003122414546931

Case, B. (2016). The Sad Legacy Of Us Vs. Them. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/fotschcase/2016/09/06/the-sad-legacy-of-us-vs-them/#1bdb2be4b355

Hughes, D., Rodriguez, J., Smith, E., Johnson, D., Stevenson, H., & Spicer, P. (2006). Parents’ ethnic-racial socialization practices: A review of research and directions for future study. Developmental Psychology, 42(5), 747-770. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.42.5.747

Mortimer, J. T., Zhang, L., Wu, C.-Y., Hussemann, J., & Johnson, M. K. (2017). Familial transmission of educational plans and the academic self-concept: A three-generation longitudinal study. Social Psychology Quarterly, 80(1), 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1177/0190272516670582

Piff, P., Stancato, D., Cote, S., Mendoza-Denton, R., & Keltner, D. (2012). Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, 109(11), 4086-4091. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1118373109

Sutton, R., & Douglas, K. (2013). Social psychology. Palgrave MacMillian.

Trommsdorff, G. (2008). Intergenerational Relations and Cultural Transmission. Cultural Transmission, 126-160. doi: 10.1017/cbo9780511804670.008

Youniss, J. (1994). Rearing children for society. New Directions For Child And Adolescent Development, 1994(66), 37-50. doi: 10.1002/cd.23219946605

BaFa BaFa’s power to transform the UK’s £127bn workplace discrimination bill

BaFa’ BaFa’ is a simulation experience allowing participants to explore ideas of culture, creating feelings similar to those experienced by individuals embarking on intercultural communications (Shirts, 2008). The simulation ran for 2 hours; half are Alphas and half Betas, each with differing culture norms. Surprisingly, individuals became very immersed in their simulated culture; with students remarking “thank god I’m back, they’re weird” after returning to their assigned culture, which is consistent with previous research (Jarrell, Alpers Brown & Wotring, 2008).

Hall (1966) noted Europeans enjoy personal space whereas Americans don’t. In Alpha culture, limited personal space was normal as arm-touching is welcoming; this made Betas very uncomfortable. When individuals are unfamiliar with expected social rules and customs they’re often negatively prejudice strangers (Berry, Poortinga, Breugelmans, Chasiotis & Sam, 2011). This explains why Betas offended Alphas, they couldn’t alter their behaviour because they simply didn’t realise. Each culture has speech codes; specific rules and meanings within that culture (Philipsen, 1997). Betas speech code was orientated to a specific goal of trading in a reward focused society, but Alphas found it very rude and intimidating.

BaFa’ BaFa’ is an excellent resource to teach compassion and understanding to different cultures, yet it’s not widely used within general populations. Discrimination is often seen in acculturation strategies and adaptation to new cultures (Berry et al., 2011), which many immigrants from other countries face. Implementing this into schools and workplaces nationwide would see a substantial impact on their wellbeing and slash the £127bn spent on discrimination in the UK workplace alone (Brady, 2018).

References:

Berry, J. W., Poortinga, Y. H., Breugelmans, S. M., Chasiotis, A., & Sam, D. (2011). Cross-cultural psychology: Theory and applications (3rd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brady, D. (2018). Workplace discrimination costs UK £127bn a year, says report | Public Finance. Retrieved from https://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2018/03/workplace-discrimination-costs-uk-ps127bn-year-says-report

Hall, E. T. (1966) The Hidden Dimension.New York: Doubleday.

Jarrell, K., Alpers, R. R., Brown, G., & Wotring, R. (2008). Using BaFa’ BaFa’ in evaluating cultural competence of nursing students. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 3(4),141-142. Doi: 10.1016j.teln.2008.08.001

Phillipsen, G. (1997). A theory of speech codes. In G. Phillipsen and T. L. Albrecht (eds.), Developing communication theories.Albany: State University of New York Press

Shirts, R. (2008). BAFA’ BAFA’, new updated version. Del Mar, CA: Simulation Training Systems

Appropriateness of Clinical Methods used to treat the Mental Health of Refugees within Europe

When you say “Psychology”, the first image that probably springs to mind are of WEIRD men in plush flats across America; you undoubtedly see Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic men, which in 2018, doesn’t represent our diverse world. Similarly, the clinical method for treating depression is biased to westernised cultures; it utilises clinical based approaches, when research shows community based approaches would better suit populations such as refugees (Stovall, 2005).

The rise in depression in westernised cultures is often pinned to social media usage and higher income (Mentzakis & Moro, 2009; Lin et al. 2016). But for the 92,196 refugees who sought asylum into Europe from Africa and Asia in 2018 (so far) (UNHC, 2018), their reasoning for developing depression is diverse. Refugees display high rates of depression for grief, violence, torture and forced migration (Munz & Melcop 2018), but even with this recognised, research in this population is sparse (Kokou-Kpolou, Mbassa Menick, Moukouta, Baugnet, & Kpelly, 2017).

Consequently, I think it’s important for more exploration in under researched and economically undeveloped populations, like; Africaan’s and Syrian’s. This allows clinicians to enhance understanding of stressors refugees experience, to avoid treating them in a clinical way developed for westernised cultures, which ignores cross-cultural differences, ecological and sociocultural variables. Participant observation methodologies would be beneficial as this would allow a more indigenous psychological perspective, whereby each culture would be understood within its own context, drawn from being immersed in the target culture rather than being squeezed to fit the westernised mould.

References:

Kokou-Kpolou, K., Mbassa Menick, D., Moukouta, C. S., Baugnet, L., & Kpelly, D. E. (2017). A cross-cultural approach to complicated grief reactions among Togo–Western African immigrants in Europe. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48(8), 1247–1262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117721972

Lin, L. yi, Sidani, J. E., Shensa, A., Radovic, A., Miller, E., Colditz, J. B., … Primack, B. A. (2016). Association between social media use and depression among US young adults. Depression and Anxiety, 33(4), 323–331. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.22466

Mentzakis, E., & Moro, M. (2009). The poor, the rich and the happy: Exploring the link between income and subjective well-being. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(1), 147–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2008.07.010

Munz, D., & Melcop, N. (2018). The psychotherapeutic care of refugees in Europe: Treatment needs, delivery reality and recommendations for action. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2018.1476436

Stovall, J. (2005). The Mental Health of Refugees: Ecological Approaches to Healing and Adaptation. Psychiatric Services, 56(6), 765-765. doi: 10.1176/appi.ps.56.6.765

UNHC, (2018, October 15) Mediterranean SituationRetrieved from http://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/mediterranean