Ethnocentrism

What is it?

- A belief that the ethnic group that one identifies with is superior to other groups - Uses one ethic group to evaluate and make judgements about people from other ethnicities - Dangerous - cause a snow ball effect if everyone is diagnosed under the Same method (DSM-5) - What is considered abnormal for one ethnicity might not be for another - 75 % of research in European text books comes from America

Weaknesses of high ethnocentrism

1) Causes; bias, misunderstanding, superiority and aggression between ethnic groups 2) Many countries accuse USA of trying to impose their own cultural norms onto other countries

Strengths of low ethnocentrism

1) Cross cultural research - Results can be generalised 2) Encourages a good understanding of ALL human behaviour

Studies with high ethnocentrism

1) Farrington - "inner city children across the world are more likely to become criminals" - He only used a sample of boys from London who went to 6 different state schools 2) DSM-5 - Characterises symptoms that 'everyone' would show from a disorder - But the research is from America

Weaknesses of low ethnocentrism

1) May not be possible to remove own cultural values out of the research - Making results not as generalisable as is thought 2) Not all research needs low ethnocentrism - Can provide very successful treatment for one specific ethnicity

Studies with low ethonocentrism

1) Raine - Everyone has a brain - How the brain is effected should be the same for everyone 1) ICD-10 - Includes global health matters

Strengths of high ethnocentrism

1) Succesful research has come from high ethnocentric studies e.g. DSM-5