gender and culture

Question 1

universality

Answer 1

a universal theory or method that can be applied to everyone or identify the real differences between people

Question 2

androcentrism

Answer 2

male dominated and focused on men, excludes womens experiences

Question 3

alpha bias

Answer 3

a misrepresentation when researchers overestimate or exaggerate gender differences

Question 4

beta bias

Answer 4

a misrepresentation when researchers underestimate or minimise gender differences

Question 5

implications of gender bias

Answer 5

creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour
fails to challenge negative sterotypes about women
justifies discrimination against women
creates double standards between men and women

Question 6

sexism in research

Answer 6

re-examining ‘facts’ about gender
view of women as normal humans and not deficient men
study women within real-life contexts, a psychology for women rather than a psychology of women

Question 7

ethnocentrism

Answer 7

seeing things from the point of view of one social group, evaluating other people using the standards and customs of ones own culture
- Ainsworth strange situation !!

Question 8

cultural relativism

Answer 8

the view that behaviour and beliefs must be judged in the context of the culture in which it originates judgments are relative, not absolute

Question 9

individualistic

Answer 9

associated with western cultures, who are taught to value personal freedom and independence

Question 10

collectivism

Answer 10

place more emphasis on interdependence and the needs of the group

Question 11

ethnocentrism - as alpha bias

Answer 11

ones own culture is considered to be different and better, the consequence is that the other cultures are de-valued

Question 12

ethnocentrism - as beta bias

Answer 12

if psychologists believe their world view is their only view, such as IQ testing

Question 13

cultral relativism - as alpha bias

Answer 13

the assumption of real differences leads psychologists to overlook universal behaviour

Question 14

cultural relativism - as beta bias

Answer 14

often discussed in the context of defining a mental disorder, by assuming the same rules apply universally, we may diagnose someone as being mentally ill, when its actually just relative to their culture

Question 15

etic approach

Answer 15

looks at behaviour from the outside of a given culture and attempts to describe these behaviours that are universal

Question 16

emic approach

Answer 16

looks at behaviour from within or inside certain cultures, and identifies behaviours that are more specific to that culture

Question 17

addressing cultural bias in research

Answer 17

local research
indigenous research that is carried out in a particular culture
representative sample that includes a range of cultures

Question 18

buss

Answer 18

study in mate preferences across 37 different cultures, in order to overlook universal behaviour, in each cultural setting there were 3 researchers, one translated the questionaire from english into a native language, the other back to english and the 3rd resolved discrepencies

he used an etic approach, as he aimed to understand universal behaviour, however we recognise he avoided cultural bias

Question 19

intelligence testing

Answer 19

• demonstration of intelligence in western cultures often involve completing tasks ‘against the clock’, however this is not universal
• in Uganda they characterised intelligence as slow, careful and deliberate thought
• they might view speed of thought as rashness
• Gould heavily criticised the US Army IQ test used in WWI as culturally biased, revealing americans as most intelligent and europeane and african americans as significantly lower