2.1: Gender and culture in psychology

Question 1

A psychologist asked men aged 25 to 35 years to keep a diary record of how many miles they walked in a week. The psychologist also asked each man to climb a flight of stairs, then took each man’s heart rate. For each man, the number of miles walked in the week was correlated with heart rate after climbing stairs. The findings showed a significant negative correlation. A national newspaper reported the findings under the headline ‘Everyone should walk for a healthy heart’.

Explain how the newspaper headline might be an example of beta bias (2 marks)

Answer 1

The newspaper headline might be an example of beta bias, because the sample was all male, but the newspaper refers to ‘Everyone…’ suggesting that the
effect would be the same for both males and females. The possible differences between genders are being ignored/minimised

Question 2

Briefly suggest one way in which psychologists might address the problem of beta bias in their research (1 mark)

Answer 2

Including participants of both sexes in their research

OR

Making it clear in reporting that any conclusion relates only to the gender of the sample

Question 3

Briefly outline what is meant by universality in gender research (2 marks)

Answer 3

Universality in gender research concerns the view that research findings gained from people of one culture can be generalised to people of other cultures