flashcards1
1
Q
Term
A
Definition
2
Q
What is gender bias in psychology?
A
- Historically male-dominated
- Major theories reflect it’s male dominated
- Some argue female voice hasn’t been heard / minimised / marginalised / said abnormal
3
Q
What is unversality?
A
- Psychology claims to have
- Conclusions draw can be applied to everyone, anywhere, regardless of time/culture/gender
- Claimed facts about HUMAN BEINGS, objective and not influenced by own values
4
Q
What is gender bias definition?
A
- When research offers a view that does not represent experience of men or women
5
Q
What is alpha bias?
A
- Misrepresentation of behaviour because of exaggerations in differences.
- Devaluing women in relation go men.
- Ex. sociobiological theory of relationship formation. Argues males interest is to impregnate, and therefore sexual promiscuity is genetically determined. Women who are promiscuous are going against nature.
6
Q
What is beta bias?
A
- Misrepresentation of behaviour because researchers minimise / underestimate gender differences.
- Usually when females are not involved in study, but assumed applies to both genders
- Ex. fight or flight, exclusively on male animals
- Taylor et al suggested biology evolved to inhibit fight or flight, and instead tend and befriend response. Forming groups ensures survival of offspring
7
Q
What is androcentrism?
A
- Consequence of beta bias
- What constitutes as normal is drawn from research involving all male.
- Anything deviating from this ‘norm’ is seen as abnormal / inferior
- Leads to females being misunderstood / pathologised
8
Q
Advantages of gender bias?
A
- Male researchers more likely to have research published, research finding gender differences more likely to be published. Institutional sexism ?
- Gender biased research provides scientific justification for denying women opportunities. In 1930, ‘scientific’ research revealed intellectual activity shrivels overaries
- Many gender differences reported based on essentialist perspective. (Gender differences are fixed/inevitable) Not always, societies where men/women both work and share chores
9
Q
Disadvantages of gender bias?
A
- Modern researchers begun to recognise values/assumptions impacting work. Dambrin and Lambert included reflection of how gender related experiences impact reading events when investigating lack of women in accountancy firms.
- Worell put forward number of criteria to avoid gender bias. These are: women should be studied in meaningful life contexts, genuinely participate (not just objects of research), diversity within groups of women (rather than comparisons between men / women), collaborative research methods with qualitative data
10
Q
What is cultural bias in psychology?
A
- 64% of world’s 56000 psych researchers were American. In Baron and Byrne social psych textbook in 1991, 94% studies in N. America
- Study of white American males
11
Q
What is culture bias?
A
- Tendency to judge people in terms of one’s cultural assumptions
-If norm/standpoint judged only from one culture, then other cultural differences = abnormal/inferior
12
Q
How to reduce culture bias?
A
- Do not extrapolate to cultures not represented in sample
- Do not assume universal norms
- Use researchers native to cultures
- Cross cultural research, and be sensitive to differences
13
Q
What is ethnocentrism?
A
- Emphasising importance of behaviour of ones own culture
- Usually that those behaviours who do not conform to (Western) model are deficient/unsophisticated/underdeveloped
14
Q
What is an example of ethnocentrism?
A
- Ainsworth’s strange situation
- Assumed securely attached child shows moderate separation protest. German mothers seen as cold / rejecting as babies didn’t show mild distress, but German mothers could just encourage independence
15
Q
What is cultural relativism?
A
- Psychologists should be more mindful of cultural relativism
- Idea behaviour can only be understood in context of norms / values of occurring culture
16
Q
Advantages of cultural bias?
A
- Historically referred to individualist/collectivist. Critics argued that is simplistic. Tokano and Osaka found 14/15 studies comparing US and Japan found no evidence of traditional distinction.
- Cochrane and Sashidaran found African-Caribbean immigrants 7x more likely to be dxd. Led to validity of DSM/ICD questioned.
- Mental illnesses in some cultures that don’t exist in others. Ex. brain fag in West Africa (hard to difficult/concentrate/think) Ex. In China if belief penis retracting into body = koro
17
Q
Disadvantages of cultural bias?
A
- Some human behaviours are universal ex. happiness / disgust expressions even in animal kingdom. (Ekman) Interactional synchrony observed in many cultures
- Cross-cultural research to prevent cultural bias. Shows knowledge and concepts we understand, not shared mutually. Counters scientific racism / makes more valid.
18
Q
What is free will?
A
- Belief we are self-determining and able to choose thoughts / actions
19
Q
What is determinism?
A
- General idea traits / behaviours outside of our control, and due to internal/external factors
20
Q
What is hard determinism?
A
- Proposes all traits/thoughts entirely out of ones control.
- Human behaviour has an identifiable cause.
- Compatible with aims of science (uncover laws that govern thoughts / action)
- Assumes everything we think/feel dictated by external forces.
21
Q
What is soft determinism?
A
- Proposes traits and behaviours determined by external/internal forces but people can still control via thoughts. Adheres to soft determinism.
22
Q
What is emphasis on in science?
A
- Casual relationships
- Need to see if IV impacts DV and all others are controlled
- Control group needed for cause and effect
