Gender bias Flashcards
What is gender bias?
The differential treatment of males and females based on stereotypes and differences.
What is alpha bias?
Psychological research which exaggerates or overestimates differences between the sexes and this leads to one gender feeling devalued.
Example of alpha bias.
Sociobiological theory of relationship formation explains human sexual attraction through the principle of survival efficiency. E.g it is in the interest to try and impregnate as any women as possible to increase the chances of his genes being passed on to the next generation. The central premise of this theory is that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined whilst females who engage in the same behaviour are seen as going against their nature.
What is beta bias?
When differences between men and women are ignored or underestimated as it is assumed that research findings on men will apply equally to both sexes.
What is androcentrism?
A consequence of beta bias within research. Male behaviour begins to be percieved as the norm which leads to female behaviour being judged as abnormal.
What is an example of beta bias?
For example, the fight or flight response was based exclusively on male animals initially and was assumed to be a universal response to a threatening situation. More recent research has found that female biology inhibits the fight or flight response.
Key points of gender bias.
-Alpha bias
-beta bias
-androcentrism
Limitation of gender bias.- implications.
Gender based research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour. It may provide a ‘scientific’ justification to deny women opportunities within the workplace or in wider society. For example, Dalton controversially suggested, that during the premenstrual stage of a women’s cycle, they are more likely to have accidents and carry out crimes. Such research findings paint women to be volatile individuals who have little control over their own behaviour and could even lead to reduced opportunities as employers who believe women are more likely to have accidents could favour male applicators for jobs.
Limitation of gender bias- sexism within the research process.
There is evidence of sexism in the research process. For example, there are a lack of women in senior researcher positions and male researchers are more likely to get their work published or appear in journal articles. This suggests that female concerns are not reflected within scientific journals and as a result psychology could be accused of promoting institutional sexism as gender bias appears to be embedded within the research process.
Strength of gender bias.
More attention is being drawn to tackling gender bias in psychology due to the development of feminist psychology. For example, Worrel and Remer suggest that to reduce gender bias in research, women should be studied in real-life contexts and should actively participants in research rather than being objects of study. This will help to reduce the likelihood of female participants behaviour being affected by the investigators expectations and stereotypes and will increase the validity of conclusions made regarding women’s behaviour.
