gender bias

Question 1

what is gender bias?

Answer 1

the differential treatment of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences

Question 2

what is universality?

Answer 2

any underlying characteristics of humans that are capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience or upbringing

Question 3

what type of bias threatens psychological research?

Answer 3

gender bias and culture bias

Question 4

what does universality allow?

Answer 4

that conclusions can be made from research

Question 5

what is alpha bias?

Answer 5

psychological research that exaggerates or overestimates the difference between sexes

Question 6

what does alpha bias do?

Answer 6

enhance or undermine members of either sex, usually women

Question 7

give an example of alpha bias

Answer 7

biological roles of men and women, e.g.
- mens best interest: impregnate as many women as possible
- womens best interest: produce offspring to ensure healthy survival of genes

Question 8

what is beta bias?

Answer 8

theories that ignore/minimise the differences between the sexes

Question 9

what does beta bias do?

Answer 9

often assumes that findings from males can be universally applied

Question 10

give an example of beta bias

Answer 10

fight or flight research has often been carried out on male animals due to less hormone variation

Question 11

what is androcentrism?

Answer 11

‘normal’ behaviour is judged to be the male standard, any other behaviour is considered abnormal

Question 12

what does androcentrism do?

Answer 12

leads to female behaviour being misunderstood

Question 13

give an example of androcentrism

Answer 13

kohlberg based stages of moral development around male standards
- claimed women generally reached a lower level of development

Question 14

give one strength of gender bias in research

Answer 14

researchers are starting to recognise the effect of their own values and assumptions on their work

Question 15

give one weakness of gender bias in research

Answer 15

it creates wrongly scientific justifications to negative stereotypes
- could deny men/women opportunities in the workplace

Question 16

how are women denied opportunity due to gender bias?

Answer 16

in workplace and in wider society, men set the boundaries of normality

Question 17

gender based research about women is carried out by…

Answer 17

male researchers, which is not a true reflection of female concerns due to lack of women appointed in senior research level

Question 18

why is gender bias common in research?

Answer 18

too few women are at the senior level of research
- male researchers are more likely to get their work published and therefore questions to tackle stereotypes are not asked

Question 19

give 3 evaluation points for gender bias

Answer 19

• scientific justifications to negative stereotypes
• bias research methods
• feminist psychologists aim to redress the gender bias in theory and research in psychology

Question 20

evaluation: negative stereotypes

Answer 20

ID: a negative implication of gender bias in psychology is that it can lead to making assumptions about female behaviour which validates discriminating against women and perpetuates negative stereotypes
Q: this could deny women opportunities in the workplace
EV: Brescoll and Uhlman - PMS is social construct, medicalises human emotion such as anger by explaining it as due to hormones whereas male anger is seen as a rational response to external pressures.
AN: Such research has frequently been used to support arguments that women should not fulfil certain roles e.g pilot. (androcentrism)

Question 21

evaluation: bias research methods

Answer 21

ID: it may not be that males and females are different , but that the methods used to test or observe them are biased.
Q: gender bias can lead to sexism in the research process which compromises psychology’s credibility at an objective science.
EV: there is evidence that male researchers are more likely to have their work published as too few women are at the senior level of research. research showing evidence of gender differences is more likely to be published than research that doesn’t. Denmark: this supports institutional sexism that creates bias in theory and research.
AN: this feminist criticism suggests that there are serious issues with the way data is collected, creating a false picture of male -female differences. this means that ‘scientific’ psychology may not be objective

Question 22

evaluation: feminist psychologists re-addressing gender bias

Answer 22

ID: feminist psychologists aim to redress the gender bias in theory and research in psychology.
Q: they argue that one way to reduce gender bias and androcentrism is to take a feminist perspective.
EV: for example they argue that although there may be real biologically based sex differences - socially determined stereotypes can lead to these being exaggerated creating reverse alpha bias.
chodorow: women are more caring and relational
cornwell: showed that women are better at learning as they are more attentive, flexible and organised.
AN: this approach can help reverse alpha bias in psychology.