Controversies (sexism)

Question 1

How has psychology been based in the past?

Answer 1

• many psychological theories are characterised by a gender bias resulting from a male as norm perspective. in recent years, however there has been a surge of interest in women centred psychology in order to counteract this (androcentric) bias.
• the use of traditional research methods in psychology has also been biased towards males, and the development of feminist research methods has done much to redress the balance, and represent women in a technically more accurate and favourable manner.

Question 2

what is the difference between gender difference and gender bias?

Answer 2

• psychologists have identified differences between men and women but these may be due to biases in the research process.
• Rachael hare mustin and jeanne maracek (1988) applied their idea of alpha bias and beta bias to gender as well as to culture, in the case of both biases the outcome is that women are portrayed as inferior.

Question 3

What is alpha bias in sexism?

Answer 3

• alpha biased theories assume there are real and enduring differences; in the case of gender bias these are real differences between men and women.
• Freud’s theory of psychosexual development is an example of an alpha biased theory because he viewed femininity as failed masculinity, an inescapable difference. in his discussion of female development, Freud clamed that ‘we must not allow ourselves to… regard the two sexes as completely equal in position and worth’
• the deficiency of women was, according to freud, caused by the absence of a penis. women are jealous of men’s penises (penis envy) and they are morally inferior (because the superego, which governs moral behaviour, develops from the oedipus complex and women don’t experience this)

Question 4

What is beta bias in sexism?

Answer 4

• beta biased theories tend to ignore or minimise differences. in this case between men and women. such theories tend either to ignore questions about the lives of women, or assume that insights derived from studies of men will apply equally to women.
• there is an androcentric bias in psychology i.e theories and studies tend to be written or conducted by men. therefore beta bias theories tend to favour men.
• Lawrence Kohlberg’s (1968) theory of moral reasoning considered how people think about moral decisions. this theory had androcentric bias for two reasons - the dilemmas used to assess moral reasoning were based on a male perspective (justice orientation) and the stage theory was based on research with males.
• nevertheless, the theory was then applied to both men and women assuming that it had universal relevance.
• unsurprisingly, kohlberg found females did not reason at a higher level that males did.
• the beta bias in the theory produced evidence of a difference which may or may not be real and the end result is that the female perspective is devalued - the importance of care in moral judgements (a female perspective) is devalued.

Question 5

What is heterosexism?

Answer 5

• heterosexism is the assumption that the ‘natural’ kind of sexual/romantic relationship is between males and females, as opposed to homosexuality.
• for many years mainstream social psychological research tended to concentrate on romantic love relationships among heterosexuals. this was challenged by julia wood and steve duck (1995) in their book entitled understudied relationships, where they argued that psychological research actually only focused on a small sample of human relationships, ignoring long distance relationships, online relationships, lesbian and gay relationships etc.

Question 6

alpha or beta bias in heterosexism?

Answer 6

• research on homosexual relationships is an example of socially sensitive research - by distinguishing hetero- and homosexual relationships as different (and requiring different research) this may perpetuate stereotypes (an alpha bias)
• by disregarding the differences, one group may be devalued (a beta bias).

Question 7

nature or nurture debate in terms of gender research.

Answer 7

• there is a further socially sensitive issue related to gender. if, for example, a region of the brain was identified as being unique to gay men then it might help other people to be more accepting of gay-ness(because it’d mean they were born that way), on the other hand, it might be seen negatively because thenindividuals may feel their behaviour is inevitable rather than a matter of choice.

Question 8

historical and social context of sexism

Answer 8

• a number of the views described on this spread point clearly to gender as a social construct. psychological research has identified the processes that create this. for example, a classic study by caroline smith and barbara lloyd (1978) observed mothers playing with an infant who was either presented as a girl (in terms of name and clothing) or as a girl. the study showed that mothers selected gender appropriate toys and also responded more actively when a boy showed increased motor activity. this shows that parents differentially reinforce gender stereotypes from a very early age. young children are also exposed to gender stereotypes in the media- a case of vicarious reinforcement.
• in another study corinne moss racusin et al (2012) sent job applications out to academics. if the application was from jennifer it was perceived as less competent than when labelled john. this shows that stereotypes continue to bias the ways we treat men and women.

Question 9

biological research

Answer 9

• we might not be surprised at finding sexism in social behaviour and research but it is rather surprising to find it in biological research.
• traditionally males have been used in research, even biological research where it was argued that female hormonal variations would have an effect on behaviour and therefore it was best to use, e.g. male rather than female rats. consider the fight or flight response- the view that people respond to high anxiety situations by producing an aggressive response or fleeing.
• shelley taylor et al (2000) have produced evidence that this is not a typical response in females who react to stress with a tend or befriend response. so for a long time we presumed fight or flight was a universal response but this turns out to be an example of a beta bias.

Question 10

feminist psychology

Answer 10

• feminist psychologists argue that there may be real biologically based sex differences but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceived differences than biological ones.
• feminist psychology takes the view that a precondition to any social change with respect to gender roles must be a revision of our facts about gender.
• whether such facts are true or not, they perpetuate our beliefs about women. feminist psychology is a branch of psychology that aims to redress the imbalances in psychology.

Question 11

How are women considered ‘invisible” in psychology?

Answer 11

• people are often mildly surprised when they realise a particular research is a woman. the academic practice of using only last names means we are often not aware of the researcher’s gender. in fact authors are more likely - the American Psychological Association published a list of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century; the list named only six women.
• This gender imbalance is strange because most undergraduate psychology are female.