3 - Issues And Debates Flashcards
Define androcentrism
Dominated or centred by men - results in a male-world view.
Since the origin of psychology it has very much been male dominated, with many male psychologists.
This may lead to alpha/beta bias.
What is gynocentrism?
The female version of androcentrism
Define alpha bias
Exaggerating the difference between men and women.
Consequently, theories that are alpha biased devalue one gender compared to another.
Define beta bias
Minimising the difference between men and women. Consequently, the needs of one gender (usually women coz they’re shit) are ignored. Eg: Asch.
Define universality and give an example
Theories applying to all people, regardless of gender or culture. Eg: facial expressions, reciprocity.
Explain the example research on alpha bias
Freud viewed femininity as failed masculinity (I mean he’s not wrong) therefore exaggerating the difference between men and women. His concept of penis envy and the Oedipus complex would suggest that women are morally inferior to men as they cannot fully develop a super-ego - they have a weaker identification with their mother.
Explain the example research on beta bias
Stress research mainly focuses on men as variations in female hormone levels would make research more difficult.
It is assumed what is true for males will therefore be true for females from the male only research.
Taylor (‘02) challenges this finding the female stress response to be “tend and befriend” rather than the male response of “fight or flight.”
Give an example of gender bias
Kohlberg (1973) developed a theory of moral reasoning which has been very influential. He only based his theory on men, and when women use the same test they came out as less morally developed than men. Gilligan (1982) found that women favoured care rather than justice, so they’re not less morally developed than men, just different.
Explain what Rosenthal (1996) concluded about bias in research methods
Male researchers are more friendly to female participants, thus male participants do not perform as well.
Explain what feminists argue about bias in research methods
Lab experiments disadvantage females and results in real life situation are more similar to men than in lab settings
List the 3 types of bias in research methods
Institutional sexism
Use of standardised procedures in research studies
Dissemination of research results
Explain institutional sexism
Men predominate at senior researcher level.
Research agenda follows male concerns, female concerns may be marginalised or ignored.
Explain the use of standardised procedures in research studies
Men and women might respond differently to research situations. Men and women might be treated differently by researchers.
They could create artificial differences or mask real ones.
Explain dissemination of research results
There is a publishing bias towards positive results.
Research that finds gender differences are more likely to get published than that which doesn’t.
This exaggerates extent of gender differences.
Define reverse alpha bias
Showing the difference between men and women but emphasising the value of women
What did Cornwell et al (2013) conclude
Girls outperform boys on reading, while boys score at least as well on maths and science tests as girls.
Boys who perform equally as well as girls on reading, maths and science tests are graded less favourably by their teachers.
Explain what avoiding beta bias is
Equal treatment under law has allowed greater access for women to educate etc.
What did Hare-Mustin and Marececk (1988) say about avoiding beta bias?
It draws attention away from special needs of women and differences between men and women. For example, equal rights to parental leave ignores the biological demand of pregnancy, childbirth and breast feeding, and subsequently disadvantages women.
Evaluate gender bias research
+ reflexivity - researchers have noticed the effect of their own values and assumptions on their work. They embrace it as a crucial and critical aspect of the research process.
Eg: Dambrin and Lambert (‘08) include reflection on how gender-related experiences influenced their work. This increases application as it leads to greater awareness of personal biases in research.
+ feminist psychologists - propose how gender bias can be avoided. Worrel and Remer (‘92) suggested criteria researchers can follow to avoid gender bias. Women should be studied in real life contexts and fully participate in research (field studies). This way of doing research may be preferable and less gender biased than lab based research.
- promotes sexism in the research process - lack of women higher up in psychology might not be addressed, with more male researchers being likely to have their work published. Psychology could be supporting a form of institutional sexism which creates bias in both therapy and research - validity.
- gender bias studies - may creat misleading information about female behaviour. It may provide a scientific reason to deny women opportunities based on these studies. They can affect women in real world situations; this lowers application.
Define culture bias
The tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions
Define ethnocentrism
Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social groups
Define cultural relativism
The view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates
Define the research approach associated with ethnocentrism
Imposed ETIC - when a technique or theory developed in one culture is used to study the behaviour in another culture
Define the research approach associated with cultural relativism
EMIC - when individual cultures are studied and generalisations are only made within that culture
Give an example of the imposed ETIC approach
Ainsworth’s strange situation - developed in the U.K. and used to compare attachments in different cultures
Give an example of the EMIC approach
In the DSM-IV-TR ‘koro’ is listed as an episode of sudden and intense anxiety that the penis will recede into the body and possibly cause death; it is mostly experienced by Chinese men
Some have argues that in a world of global communication and interconnectedness, culture bias is no longer such an issue - why?
We are becoming more interconnected, so imposed ETIC doesn’t matter. Takano and Osaka (‘99) found that 14/15 studies that compared USA and Japan found no evidence of traditional distinction between individualism and collectivism. This increases generalisability and validity as it suggests that culture bias is becoming less of an issue
Some behaviours are universal and therefore an EMIC approach would not be needed - what are the 2 examples?
Reciprocity
Facial expressions
What does “challenging implicit assumptions” mean? Why is this a strength of cross cultural bias?
When we use other cultures to realise some stuff isn’t what we naturally presumed. Some knowledge and concepts we presume/take for granted aren’t shared by other cultures; this promotes sensitivity and increases validity.
Evaluate culture bias
- there is a range of evidence to show cultural bias is a problem
in psychology. Eg: Humanist theory and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This approach is based on Western culture and values independence and striving to achieve self-actualisation. These ideals do not necessarily apply to other non-Western cultures. This is a problem because the theory attempts to be Universal and if applied to other cultures can be used to judge behaviour. This may therefore misrepresent a person’s experience. This suggests the theory is only valid in the culture from which it came. Therefore, psychologists need to specify the context of their research and theory and the population it can be applied to.
+ new research methods are reducing the impact of cultural bias. By understanding the impact of cultural bias, researchers can make
improvements to research. One way of working toward Universal theories taking an ‘etic’ approach is to carry out research with indigenous researchers in each culture. Buss carried out research into mate preferences in 37 cultures. In each culture they had 3 local researchers – 1 translated the questionnaire from English, the second translated responses from the locals back into English, and the third looked for and resolved any discrepancies. This meant that the research had greater validity. Therefore it is possible to carry out research looking for Universal laws whilst reducing cultural bias.
+ Another way of tackling cultural bias is to improve sampling
methods. Psychology has a strong Western influence and most studies referred to in European text books are American or European based on participants from those cultures. This means that psychology as a discipline under-respresents non-Western cultures. As researchers have greater awareness of cultural bias, research can be improved by selecting samples to represent different cultural groups. This will reduce cultural bias and increase the validity when making universal
theories. Therefore, cultural bias can be reduced. - cultural bias is a serious problem because it can lead to serious
consequences. One example of negative consequences resulted from the use of Army IQ tests in USA before WW1. Questions reflected an imposed etic, using Western concepts to assess people of different cultures. Results of these suggested (incorrectly) that African Americans had the lowest mental age. There were negative consequences in that the findings contributed to racial stereotypes that discriminated against African Americans. Such research is socially sensitive and has ethical implications. Therefore, research into characteristics like intelligence needs to be undertaken with care and with culturally appropriate materials and questions to prevent negative effects for certain groups of people.
Define free will
The idea that we have choices in how we act. It separates out what is the intention of an individual from what has been created by other causes. This means that we are “self-determining” and free from the causal influence of the past.
Define determinism
All behaviour is controlled by either internal or external forces. This means behaviour is predictable.
List the 6 types of determinism
Scientific Psychic Soft Hard Environmental Biological
Define scientific determinism
The scientific emphasis on causal explanations states that every event in the universe has a cause, and that causes can be explained using general laws.
Define biological determinism
Behaviour is determined by our genes, and subsequently neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
Define psychic determinism
Behaviour is determined by innate drives and early experiences
Define environmental determinism
Behaviour is caused by previous experience, through classical and operant conditioning
