The issue of sanpling bias has been raised by Mike Palij and Jim Clark in
recent posts.
And I have been doing some thinking about that.It seems to be that the sampling
bias
accusation comes up when the results of the research are construed to be
applicable to
poulation parameters not represented in the experimental subject pool.
I have no dispute if a researcher states that the results were obtained from a
particular group of subjects abd some caution should be exercised in
generalizing to other groups.
There is nothing wrong in stating that the data were collected from whites and
may be applicable only to whites or the data were obtained from certain
parameters and should only
be interpreted within those groups with similar parameters.
I think that the main issue has been the assumption that
researh results obtained
from white subjects are applicable to other groups.Now maybe it can if we
assume some
presumed equivalence in behavioral and other parameters to warrant
generalization.
It is often mentioned that the famous study that aspirin could ward off a heart
attack did not include one woman.It was an all male study.Is this sampling
bias? It depends on how one looks at it. There is nothing wrong with an all
male or all white study.We should just conclude that the results may not
generalize to other groups.As a matter of fact there should be disclaimers
about generalizing to other groups or other situations-like notices on herbal
supplements
as required by the FDA.
The Eurocentric paradigm is probably best applicable to
those societies where
Eurocentrism is the modus operandi and philosophy in the political,social,and
cultural imperatives of that society.Unfortunately it has achieved a dominant
place in U.S society (so far) and has dictated the norms for virtually all
aspects of social as well as cognitive values.
This is what I mean by the label of Eurocentric Cognitive Imperialism and the
Eurocentric
consensus.
Maybe it would behove Psychology to go the way of cultural
anthropology-
looking for general principles but becoming aware aware of the differential
and unique characteristics of those principles in other subject pools. I still
like the Spearman G.
Michael (omnicentric) Sylvester,PhD
Daytona Beach,Florida
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