5.1 Issues and Debates (Gender and Cultural bias)

Question 1

What is cultural bias?

Answer 1

A tendency to interpret all phenomena through the lens of ones own culture (ignoring the effects of cultural differences on behaviour)

Question 2

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 2

A belief in the superiority of ones own cultural group, and judging all cultures according to those standards and values

Question 3

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 3

The idea that norms/values can only be meaningful and understood within the context of the society/culture which it occurs

Question 4

Who created the term WEIRD and what does it mean?

Answer 4

• Henrich et al
• The group of people most likely to be studied by psychologists:
  Westernised, Educated, Industrialised, Rich Democracy

Question 5

What is the influence of WEIRD studies?

Answer 5

• If the norm/standard is set by WEIRD people, then the behaviour of non-WEIRD people is viewed as abnormal, inferior

Question 6

Describe Henrich et al’s (2010) findings on universality and bias

Answer 6

• Reviewed hundreds of studies in leading psychology jounrals
• Found that 68% of participants came from the US, and 96% from industrialised nations

Question 7

What previous study is an example of ethnocentrism and why?

Answer 7

• Ainsworth’s strange situation (studied attachment types in 100 American infants)
• Suggested ideal attachment was secure (moderate separation anxiety)
• Led to misinterpretation of child practices in other countries which deviated from American ‘norm’

Question 8

What is the difference between emic and etic as stated by Berry (1969)?

Answer 8

- Etic: looks at behaviour from outside a given culture and attempts to describe them as universal
- Emic: looks inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture

Question 9

AO3 for cultural bias

Answer 9

1. Classic studies: most influential studies culturally biased, e.g Asch and Milgram’s original studies conducted with US participants, replications in other cultures produced different results, Asch studies in collectivist countries e.g China found higher rates of conformity

2. Cultural psychology: study of how people shape and are shaped by culture, cultural psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions, take an emic approach and conduct research inside cultures alongside local researchers with culturally-based techniques, even cross-cultural research tends to focus on just two countries rather than larger scale

3. Ethnic stereotyping: bias has led to prejudice against groups, Gould (1981) explained how psychologists piloted first IQ tests during WW1, items on the tests were ethnocentric e.g names of US presidents, recruits from south-eastern Europe and African-Americans received the lowest scores, results used to inform racism about genetic inferiority of particular cultural groups, deemed ‘feeble-minded’ and ‘mentally unfit’ in comparison to white majority

Question 10

What did Berry (1969) suggest to avoid cultural bias?

Answer 10

• Psychologists should be mindful of cultural relativism in their research
• Their discoveries may only make sense within the perspective of the culture it was found

Question 11

What is imposed etic?

Answer 11

When observations/studies from one culture is inappropriately generalized to another

Question 12

What are 3 possible strategies to reduce cultural bias?

Answer 12

• Increase representation of diverse groups within the participant samples
• Take an emic approach when studying
• Use researchers native to/familiar with culture being studied

Question 13

What is gender bias?

Answer 13

When research does not offer a view that justifiably represents the experience/behaviour of men or women

Question 14

What is universality?

Answer 14

Any underlying characteristic of human beings that can be applied to all, despite differences in time or culture

Question 15

What are the 2 forms of gender bias?

Answer 15

- Alpha bias: exaggerates/overestimates differences between the sexes (differences are more likely to devalue females in relation to males)

- Beta bias: ignores, minimises or underestimates differences between men and women (findings applied equally to genders)

Question 16

Describe an example of alpha bias in research?

Answer 16

• Freud’s psychosexual development
• During phallic stage, boys and girls develop desire for parent
• Castration anxiety and boy identifies with father
• Girls identification to same-sex parent is weaker (means weak superego as develops from adopting parents moral perspective)
• Suggests girls more morally inferior than boys

Question 17

Describe an example of beta bias in research?

Answer 17

• Fight or flight
• Biological research typically favored male animals
• Because female behaviour affected by regular hormone changes due to ovulation
• Differences ignored and assumes both genders respond to threatening situations with fight or flight

Question 18

What did Taylor et al (2000) suggest about the fight or flight response?

Answer 18

• Rejected ‘fight or flight’ and suggested ‘tend and befriend’ response
• Oxytocin (love hormone) more plentiful in women
• Women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production which reduces fight or flight

Question 19

What is an example of androcentrism (Brescoll and Uhlmann 2008)

Answer 19

• Females objected to PMS (premenstrual syndrome)
• A social construction which medicalises female emotions e.g anger, by explaining them in hormonal terms

Question 20

AO3 for gender bias

Answer 20

1. Biological vs social explanations: gender differences presented as fixed/enduring, Maccoby + Jacklin (1974) presented findings of several studies concluding that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have spatial, and suggested these differences hardwired into brain before birth, this became widely reported and viewed as factual, HOWEVER Joel et al (2015) found no sex differences in brain structure/processing using scans, data from previous study only popularised as it fitted existing stereotypes (girls as speakers, boys as doers), suggests some research findings better explained as social stereotypes rather than biological

2. Sexism in research: women remain underrepresented e.g in university departments/science, Murphy et al (2014) although undergraduate intake is mainly women, departments more likely male, means that research more likely to be conducted by men disadvantaging female participants, institutional structures/methods more likely gender-biased

3. Gender-biased research: research challenging bias may not be published, Formanowicz et al (2018) analysed 1000 gender bias articles published over 8 years, research on gender bias funded less often and published by less prestige journals, fewer scholars were aware of it/applied it to their own research, still was true when gender bias compared to other forms e.g ethnic bias and when other factors were controlled e.g authors gender, suggests gender bias not viewed as seriously as other forms

Question 21

What is a consequence of androcentrism?

Answer 21

• Behaviour that deviates from standard may be judges unfavorably
• Can lead to female behaviour being misunderstood or pathologised (taken as a sign of psychological instability/disorder)

Question 22

What is androcentrism?

Answer 22

When ‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to a male standard (consequence of beta bias)