Gender and cultural issues Flashcards
What does androcentric mean?
The same of a study is one gender
What does Alpha bias mean?
An overestimation of gender differences
What is beta bias
Under estimating gender differences (tends to be due to an androcentric study)
What is universality
explanations apply equally to both genders
Where are gender differences seen in social psychology?
SHERIDAN AND KING:
They were asked to give puppies an electric shock
100% of women obeyed however they were doing it they were very distressed
This is evidence for the ethics of care because they care about what the authority thinks about them
54% of men obeyed
Where is beta bias seen in social psychology?
Sherif had an androcentric sample of boys.
They were 11 year old boys.
This means therefore that the conclusions about prejudice are subject to beta bias (an underestimation of gender differences)
What is an example of where there are no gender differences in social psychology?
BURGER:
said that there were no gender differences in levels of obedience (cannot use Milgram as it is androcentric)
Are there any gender issues in Sherif et al?
Sherif had an androcentric sample of boys.
They were 11 year old boys.
This means therefore that the conclusions about prejudice are subject to beta bias
What is an example of gender differences in cognitive?
SCHEMA THEORY:
Men and Woman have different past experiences which creates different expectations for events. If we are raising men and women differently than this might have an impact of their schema theory.
Where is there universality present in cognitive psychology?
In experiment 3 (in 1966b) it is not androcentric because both men and women were tested.
Therefore encoding is universal and is seen the same in both men and women
What is an example of where no gender differences are present in cognitive?
MODELS OF MEMORY:
There was no difference in capacity of short term memory in the MSM. This is not gendered (potential beta bias)
Where are there gender issues in baddeley et al?
In experiment 3 (in 1966b) it is not androcentric because both men and women were tested.
Therefore encoding is universal and seen the same in both men and women
Where are there gender differences seen in biological psychology?
HORMONES:
Men have higher levels of testosterone than women due to natural production in puberty correlated with higher levels of aggression.
EVOLUTION:
Men fight and protect whereas women tended to tend and befriend
What is an example of beta bias in biological psychology?
We seen beta bias in Dabbs and Hargrove et al because the study has an androcentric sample and therefore we see only the effects of increased testosterone and high levels of physical aggression in women
What is an example of where there are no gender differences in biological?
AMYGDALA/
NEUROTRANSMITTERS:
Both men and women have an amygdala
Both men and women have levels of neurotransmitter
Raine (1997)
Where are gender issues seen in Raine?
Raine et al’s study was not androcentric because both men and women were tested. This means that the function of the amygdala is universal. However as there were more men than females the generalisation of the results was better for males than females.
Where are gender differences present in learning?
BANDURA:
Same – sex role models increase imitation
The boys tended to show more physical aggression whereas girls tended to show more verbal aggression
Where is beta bias seen in learning?
WATSON AND RAYNER:
This study is a pre-experiment on one participant (because they manipulated the IV)
It was an androcentric sample as there was only 1 boy. Therefore conclusions about phobias are subject to beta bias.
Where is there no gender differences in learning?
OPERANT:
Reinforcement is equally effective in both genders
Where are gender issues seen in clinical?
SCHIZOPHRENIA/AN:
Men are more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia than women
In AN, Zerwas et al found that the prevalence of AN for women is 11.65 per 10,000 whereas 0.77 per 10,000
Where are there no gender differences seen in clinical?
TREATMENT:
The same drug therapies are going to be administered regardless of gender
Where are gender issues seen in Rosenhan?
Rosenhan’s study was not androcentric because both men and women were tested. This means that misdiagnosis is not subject to gender. However as there were more men than females the generalisation of the results was better for males than females (unrepresentative sample).
What are the strengths/weaknesses of having an androcentric sample?
GOOD BECAUSE IT REMOVES GENDER AS A EXTRANEOUS VARIABLE
HOWEVER IT CANNOT THEREFORE BE GENERALISED TO ALL GENDERS DUE TO BETA BIAS AND THE FACT THAT WOMEN MIGHT NOT HAVE THE SAME BEHAVIOUR AS MEN (APPLY TO WHAT EVER SECTION OF PSYCHOLOGY)
What does ethnocentric mean?
ETHNOCENTRIC – sample in a study/research is ‘centred’ around one cultural group
Ethnocentric research should not be used, therefore, to try and understand or interpret behaviours of different cultural groups
Most of our research is western (England and America)
Psychology and psychological research are focused on educated cultures/countries (high levels of literacy and ability to access information independently)
Generally these cultures are individualistic which means cultures where people look out for themselves as individuals and want to succeed for themselves (e.g. US and UK) rather than succeeding as a group (e.g. China or Israel)
Most of these countries are rich countries within these cultures
These countries are also developed
What is the acronym that we use for culture?
ACRONYM FOR CULTURE:
W = western
E = educated
I = individualistic
R = rich
D = developed
What qualities does ethnocentric research therefore have?
- Ethnocentric research then means that there is cultural bias as they are assuming that all countries are the same even though they are not
- Basing the research on ideals on certain cultural groups
- These behaviours are therefore culturally relative/specific
What are Emics?
EMICS – that behaviours are socially and culturally specific. They are constructs that are particular to a specific culture
E.g. what counts as a crime in the UK is not the same as what counts as a crime in another country
What are Etics?
ETICS – that behaviours are universal and innate (this is part on universalism)
For example the desire to learn is etic
What are imposed Etics?
THE IMPOSED ETICS – If we impose western beliefs on people from other cultures or belief systems, we call it an ‘imposed etic’
We are imposing our western values or western cultures on to another different culture and judging them by it
We believe therefore that the ethics from our culture actually apply to all cultures, even if this is not the case
What is universalism?
UNIVERSALISM – research has shown that all countries are showing the same behaviours
E.g. looking at innate behaviours such as aggression that comes from the same causes in individuals in different countries
Prejudice is also therefore universal because there is at least a little bit of prejudice in each culture, despite sone being more than others
What is the strengths/weaknesses of having an ethnocentric sample?
GOOD BECAUSE IT REMOVES CULTURE AS A EXTRANEOUS VARIABLE
HOWEVER IT CANNOT THEREFORE BE GENERALISED TO ALL CULTURES AS DUE TO EMICS AND DIFFERENT CULTURAL NORMS THEY WOULD HAVE DIFFERENT BELIEFS
How are cultural issues seen in Social?
PREJUDICE:
Individualist cultures have more intra-cultural prejudice (this means there is more prejudice within our culture e.g. racism and sexism)
Collectivist cultures have more inter-cultural prejudices (this means that they have prejudice with other cultures)
Tajfel vs Wetherell and the minimal groups experiment done in America (T) and Polynesian children in NZ (W)
Also see cultural differences in Sherif because there is an ethnocentric sample
How is universalism seen in Social?
PREJUDICE:
Prejudice is in all cultures and therefore the desire to be prejudiced could be innate (the cognitive biases are there)
Blass found that obedience rates were similar in cross cultural research (meta-analysis of replications of Milgram’s study)
How are culture differences seen in Cognitive?
WORD LENGTH EFFECT:
In Sebastian and Hernandez Gill we see the world length effect having an effect on digit span
SCHEMA THEORY:
Culture has an effect on the developments of schema as there is different culture based past experiences and expectations
Where is universalism seen in Cognitive?
MSM:
Encoding and duration of the information is universal as we all have around the same e.g. STM is always around 18-30s
Where are cultural differences seen in Biological?
TRIBES:
Between tribes in Brazil and New Zealand. For example the Yanomami (Brazil) tribe that taught that aggression was good and encouraged has higher levels of aggression. However the tribe! Kung San tribe (Vietnam) discourages aggressive behaviour and therefore there was lower levels of aggression.
Where is universalism seen in biological?
EVOLUTION:
Aggression is universal and guarding and protecting offspring is innate.
There is also sexual and natural selection which are innate and happen regardless of the culture
Where are cultural differences seen in learning?
BECKER:
TV introduction in Fiji. This is culturally relative because before the introduction of TV they had a body preference of women with a high BMI and were curvier
Where is universalism seen in learning?
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
Everyone learns through association. This shows an innate desire to learn
