Gender and culture in psychology - Gender Bias Flashcards
(11 cards)
Universality and Bias -
what are psychologists beliefs influenced by?
what is bias?
psychologists have beliefs and values influenced by the social and historical contexts within which they live.
this may undermine psychologists’ claims to discover facts about human behaviour that are objective, value-free and consistent across time culture (universality)
Bias is a leaning towards a personal view that doesn’t reflect reality. psychological theory and research may not accurately represent the experience and behaviour of men and woman
Alpha Bias - exaggerates differences
- how are the differences between the sexes usually presented?
- what do these differences do?
differences between the sexes are usually presented as fixed and inevitable
these differences occasionally heighten the value of women but are more likely to devalue females in relation to males
examples of Alpha Bias
what is an example of Alpha Bias - favouring males
what is an example of Alpha Bias - Favouring females
Alpha Bias - favouring males
Freud claimed children in the phallic stage, desire their opposite-sex parent. This is resolved by identification with their same-sex parent
But a girl’s identification is weaker , creating a Superego and weaker moral development
Alpha Bias - favouring females - Chodorow - said that daughters and mothers are more connected than sons and mothers because of biological similarities - so women develop better bonds and empathy for others.
what is Beta Bias?
ignoring or underestimating differences between men and woman often occurs when female participants are not included in the research processes but it is assumed that research findings apply equally to both sexes.
example of beta bias ?
what was early research of fight or flight based on?
what did Taylor suggest about females fight or flight?
early research into fight or flight - based on male animals (because female hormones fluctuate)
fight or flight was assumed to be a universal response to threat
Taylor - suggests that females exhibit a ‘tend and befriend’ response governed by the hormone - oxytocin - which is more plentiful in women (also present in small quantities of men) and reduces the fight or flight response.
it is an evolved response for caring for young
androcentrism:
alpha and beta bias are consequences of androcentrism
psychology has traditionally been a subject dominated by males - list 100 famous psychologists contained 6 females
this leads to females behaviour being misunderstood and even pathologized (taken as a sign of illness)
e.g. feminists object to the category of premenstrual syndrome PMS - because it medicalises female emotions (e.g. anger) by explaining these in hormonal terms
but male anger is often seen as a rational response to external pressure (Brescoll and Uhlmann)
Limitation is that gender differences are given as fixed and enduring.
What did Maccoby and Jacklin conclude about differences in girls and boys?
What did Joel find about differences between genders?
Maccoby and Jacklin concluded that girls have better verbal ability and boys better spatial ability - due to hardwired biological differences
Joel used brain scanning and found no such gender differences
this suggests that we should be wary of accepting research as biological facts when it might be explained better as social stereotypes
counterpoint - what is suggested about females and multitasking? what could this suggest about biological differences?
Ingalhalikar suggests the popular social stereotype that females are better at multitasking may have some biological truth to it - their hemispheres are better connected
this suggests that there may be biological differences but we still should be wary of exaggerating the effect they may have on behaviour
limitation - gender bias promoted sexism in research process
who is research more likely to be conducted by?
what is the impact of this?
women are underrepresented in university departments (Murphy)
research is more likely to be conducted by males which may disadvantage females
for example, a male researcher may expect female participants to be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks (Nicolson) which may mean they underperform
this means that the institutional structures and methods of psychology may produce findings that are gender based.
A further limitation is research challenging bias may not be published -
Formanowicz analysed 1000 articles relating to gender bias - such research is funded less often and is published by less prestigious journals
this still held true when gender bias was compared to ethnic bias, and when other factors were controlled (e.g. the gender of the author(s) and methodology)
this suggests that gender bias in psychological research may not be taken as seriously as other forms of bias
extra
gender-biased research creates misleading assumptions about female behaviours, fails to challenge negative stereotypes and validates discriminatory practices.
however, modern researchers recognised the effect assumptions have on their work (reflexivity) and embrace them as a crucial aspect of the research process
this suggests that gender bias may add an extra dimension to research if psychologist are up front about it in their work
