Gender Bias

Question 1

What is Universality?

Answer 1

When a theory can be applied to all people irrespective of culture or gender

Question 2

What is Alpha Bias?

Answer 2

When the differences between men and women are exaggerated, either to heighten the value of women or devalue them

Question 3

What is Beta Bias?

Answer 3

When the differences between the two sexes and minimised or ignored

Question 4

Give an example of Alpha Bias within Psychology

Answer 4

• Psychodynamic Approach
• Bowlbys monotropic theory

Question 5

Why does the Psychodynamic Approach have an Alpha bias?

Answer 5

• Freud believes women are immoral because they don’t feel the pressure to identify with their same-sex parental figure, due to not having the fear of castration anxiety
• He believed ‘anatomy is destiny’, claiming young girls suffer from ‘penis envy’, and that femininity is a failed version of masculinity

Question 6

Give an example of Beta bias within Psychology?

Answer 6

• Kohlbergs theory of moral development
• The ‘Fight or Flight’ Response

Question 7

Why does Kohlberg’s theory of moral development have a beta bias?

Answer 7

• Theory was developed by studying American males
• This theory was generalised to both sexes
• Doesn’t pay attention to the differences between the sexes

Question 8

What is Androcentrism?

Answer 8

Theories focus on males; taking male thinking as normal and regarding female behaviour as deviant and inferior when it is different to males

Question 9

Give an example of Androcentrism in Psychology

Answer 9

• PMS, trivialises female emotion, whereas male anger is seen as a logical response to external pressure

Question 10

Give an evaluation point to gender bias?

Answer 10

• Bias in research methods
• Feminist psychology can counter androcentrism
• Beta-bias may be beneficial
• Gender bias and gender stereotyping

Question 11

What is bias in research methods?

Answer 11

• Theories may be biased due to the methods used
• Rosenthal (1966) found that male experimenters were more pleasant and encouraging to female participants, resulting in women performing better
• Also, feminists argue lab experiments represent very little of what women experience in the real world

Question 12

What is feminist psychology?

Answer 12

• Branch of psychology that aims to redress the imbalances in theory and research
• Agrees that there are biological differences between the sexes, but socially determined stereotypes have a far greater contribution
• Carol Gilligan evaluated Kohlbergs theory of moral development and found gender differences, but this was not biased, because neither kind of moral reasoning was ‘better’
• Alpha biased research can also be used to help women

Question 13

What is beta-bias may be beneficial?

Answer 13

• Equal treatment may be a disadvantage to women
• Hare-Mustin and Mareck (1988) point out equal treatment draw attention away from womens special needs
• E.g. shared parenting ignores biological demands of women

Question 14

What is gender bias and gender stereotyping?

Answer 14

• Assumptions about gender roles have contributed to widespread beliefs about gender roles in, for example, caregiving
• Biased research can be socially sensitive, and the negative implications can further contribute to negative gender stereotypes