Does psychology need to be less WEIRD?
Many people will not be lucky enough to travel to the destination of their dreams this summer. It’s nice to get away to somewhere that is a bit different culturally and enjoy a book by the pool or beach. But no matter where you go, if you are reading a book on psychology, the chances are you won’t read much about research conducted in your favourite holiday hotspots. Why is that?
One recent paper lamented that “many papers do not even bother to identify or justify the nationality of their samples”. This is part of a new conversation about how psychology focuses too much on WEIRD people, ‘WEIRD’ being the cheeky acronym for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic societies. These societies account for about 5% of the world, but in the top six APA journals, 96% of research participants are from WEIRD countries, with around two thirds from the US.
This means a substantial amount of the output from psychology has been generalising findings from undergraduate students in the US to all cultures and demographics around the world, despite the fact that we already know cultures are different in various ways (e.g. in how individualistic or collectivist their people are) and how this can impact their psychology.
This over-reliance on information derived from one type of society, and virtual blindness to the country in which the study was conducted, seems to presume that people all over the world are indistinguishable psychologically from Westerners.
Although cultural differences will have less impact on biology, cultural blindness in the field of psychology is increasingly seen as a weakness which undermines our confidence in how relevant psychology literature is to much of the world.
We wanted Perspectives in Male Psychology to be relevant to a world audience, so – as much as possible given word limitations and availability of information – we flagged up the country or region in which studies were done. This resulted in the identification of many countries, including:
Afghanistan
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
China
Cuba
Cyprus
Denmark
England
Estonia
France
Germany
Holland
India
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Mexico
New Zealand
Norway
Puerto Rico
Russia
Scotland
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
USA
Vietnam
Wales
Perspectives also cites other demographics e.g. African American culture, Asian American, French-Canadian etc., as well as cities (London, New York) and regions such as the American mid-west, the Persian Gulf, North of England, Eastern Europe, South America, Africa, Asia etc.
Although Perspectives in Male Psychology is primarily a book about understanding various aspects of men’s lives (e.g. education, sports, crime etc), we think our modest attempt to bring attention to culture is an added bonus, and would encourage others to do the same or more.
So whichever part of the world you are spending your summer in this year – even if it’s just in your WEIRD back garden - I hope you find the time to relax and unwind with an enjoyable book.
About the author
Dr John A. Barry is a Chartered Psychologist and Professional Researcher. He is a leading expert in the areas of male psychology including men’s mental health and the psychological aspects of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). His new book, Perspectives in Male Psychology: An Introduction (ISBN: 978-1-119-68535-7), co-authored with Louise Liddon, is published in the new year and is available to pre-order now.
