Cultural Bias Essay

The paper aims to present the arguments regarding the possibility of psychological tests to be culture free or culture bound. Psychological tests are based on norms and the normative sample consist only a thin slice of human population. This leads to several cultural biases in testing. Thus, continuous attempts have been made by many researchers to construct culture-fair tests while many other believe that construction of such a test is almost impossible because it is very difficult to account all the cultural differences and variation across the globe.

Introduction:

Genesis of psychological testing showcases the developments and attempts made by the researchers to measure human mind and behaviour. Psychological testing is used in various

Because many differential validity studies have smaller numbers of minority members as sample, it is important to look beyond statistical significance of validity coefficients. The same correlation can be statistically significant for one group but insignificant for another group. Intercept Bias is the name given when the test scores for individuals in a minority group systematically underestimate performance on a criterion (e.g., IQ predicting achievement) compared to the scores from those in the majority. A thorough job or task analysis and a test that provides scores meaningful to the particular job or task analyzed are important in reviewing items for such bias.

However, researchers who study cultural differences in intelligence face a major challenge of balancing the desire to compare people from various cultures according to a standard measure with the need to assess people with reference to their own values and contexts, says Elena Grigorenko (Deputy Director of the Centre for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies and Expertise at Yale). "On the one hand, mindless application of the same tests across cultures is desired by no one," she suggests. "On the other, everyone would like to be able to do at least some comparisons of people across