Ethnocentrism

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

From the description : Ethnocentrism in Psychology is loosely defined as the inability to think outside one’s own cultural experience, and a tendency to assume that what happens in our own culture is common to other cultures.

Sometimes, psychologists draw conclusions from studies focused on one culture or group and assume it can be generalised to other groups or cultures. This phenomena has been common with research conducted in Western countries like the US and UK, although more so in the past.

Generally speaking, there are two forms of ethnocentrism; the first, more brutal form of ethnocentrism, is an explicit belief that one’s group (social, ethnic or cultural) is more important than others.

The softer version of ethnocentrism is the idea that as individuals and groups, we find it hard to think outside our own cultural experience, so we just unquestioningly assume that the way things happen in our own culture is just the way that things happen in all other cultures. This means that, in research, psychologists might design research or draw conclusions in a way that makes sense or applies only to their cultural group, but may have little meaning to other cultural groups. This could be because the sample in the study reflects only one culture. It may also be that the questions asked, the task given or the interpretation of the results assumes a particular cultural background.

Ethnically and culturally, I'm Irish. I feel this makes me free of even 'soft' ethnocentrism, since the notion that other cultures would approach issues the way the Irish do is bloody terrifying.

Boru