Gender Bias

Question 1

What is bias?

Answer 1

when considering human behaviour, it is the tendency to treat an individual or group differently to another.

Question 2

What is gender bias?

Answer 2

in psychological research, gender bias occurs when the experience and behaviour of men or women (usually women) has not been justifiably represented.

Question 3

What is universality?

Answer 3

=Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all.

Psychologists claim that findings have universality and that they have discovered ‘facts’ which are objectives. But bias makes research subjective and undermines the claim of universality.

Question 4

What is alpha bias?

Answer 4

bias that overestimates or exaggerates difference between the sexes, and presents these differences as fixed and inevitable.

Question 5

Alpha bias example: Freud.

Answer 5

Freud’s phallic state. Boys experience castration anxiety which is resolved by identifying with the father. However when the girl identifies with her female counterpart, the bond is weaker because women’s superegos are weaker. This projects the view that women are inferior to men.

Question 6

Example alpha bias: sociobiological theory?

Answer 6

Men want to impregnate as many females as possible to pass genes on effectively (quantity) whereas women want to preserve her genes to ensure the survival of the few offspring she has (quality). Females engaging in sexual promiscuity are labelled as going against their nature whereas it is natural for a man.

Question 7

What is beta bias?

Answer 7

ignoring, minimising or underestimating the differences between the sexes. It assumes men and women behave the same.

Question 8

Beta bias example: fight or flight

Answer 8

Fight or flight research. Research has favoured using male animals due the fluctuating hormone levels of females. However it is assumed both genders respond to threatening situations with fight or flight.

Question 9

Beta bias: Shelley Taylor.

Answer 9

(2000)
Suggested females inhibit fight or flight response because of a higher level of oxytocin. They shift attention onto caring for offspring and forming defensive networks with other females (tend and befriend).
Minimising gender differences has resulted in a misrepresentation of women.

Question 10

What is androcentrism? +female psychologists?

Answer 10

When normal behaviour is judged compared to the male standard.

Psychology was considered a man’s subject, with only 6 of the top 100 most influential psychologists in the 20th Century being women. Women’s behaviour has often been misunderstood or pathologized.

Question 11

Example androcentrism: PMS

Answer 11

Premenstrual syndrome- feminists object to women’s emotions being medicalised, such as anger, whereas anger in men is considered a ‘masculine and rational’ response.

Question 12

Strengths: reflexivity.

Answer 12

Researchers are beginning to recognise the effect their own values and assumptions have on the nature of their work.

Rather than seeing such bias as a problem that may threaten the objective status of their work, they embrace it as a crucial and critical aspect of the research process in general.​

Claire Dambrin and Caroline Lambert (2008) include reflection on how their gender-related experiences influence their reading of events.​ This may lead to greater awareness of the role of personal biases.

Question 13

Strengths: feminist psychology?

Answer 13

Worrell’s criteria to study women.

They should be studied in real life situations, actually participate in the study, the diversity within groups of women should be studied, and there should be more emphasis on qualitative data.

More well-rounded represents women’s behaviour and experience.

Question 14

Weaknesses: real world implications.

Answer 14

Gender-biassed research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour, fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discriminatory practices. ​

It may provide a scientific ‘justification’ to deny women opportunities within the workplace or in wider society. Thus, gender bias in research is not just a methodological problem but may have damaging consequences.

Question 15

Weaknesses: stereotypes

Answer 15

Some research is published as widely known facts, just because it fits in with stereotypes (Maccoby and Jacklin verbal/spatial ability argument).

Question 16

Weaknesses: sexism in research

Answer 16

A lack of women appointed at senior research level means that female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions asked.

Male researchers are more likely to have their work published and studies which find evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles than those that do not. ​

This means that psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism (Denmark et al.1988).​

Question 17

Weaknesses: essentialism.

Answer 17

Gender differences reported by psychologists over the years are based on an essentialist perspective: that the gender difference in question is inevitable and ‘fixed’ in nature.

​In the 1930s, ‘scientific‘ research revealed how intellectual activity, such as attending university, would shrivel a woman’s ovaries and harm her chances of giving birth! Such essentialist accounts in psychology are often politically motivated arguments disguised as biological ‘facts’.

Question 18

Weaknesses: avoiding beta bias.

Answer 18

treating women equally to men gives more opportunity in education and employment, but may also ignore the biological demands of pregnancy or menopause.