Gender Bias Flashcards
1
Q
Gender Bias
A
- Representation or different treatment of men and women based on stereotypical ideas about what they are like rather than real differences.
2
Q
Universiality and Gender Bias
A
- Psychologists hold beliefs and values that have been influenced by the environment.
- Bias may be an inevitable part of the research process.
- Despite this psychologists argue they have discovered objective and scientific facts about human behaviour.
- Undermines psychology claims to universiality that conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone regardless of their gender.
- Argued that psychology has either ignored or overemphasised gender as important influence on human behaviour.
- If norm for particular behaviour is judged from a perspective of a certain gender then gender differences in behaviour that deviate from this will be seen as abnormal or inferior.
3
Q
Alpha Bias
A
- Findings exaggerate or overestimate differences between males and females.
- Differences are presented as real, enduring, fixed and inevitable.
- Occasionally findings will heighten value of females but are more likely to devalue females in comparison to male counterparts.
4
Q
Example of Alpha Bias
A
- Freuds Theory of Sexual Development.
- Tends to lead a pessimistic view of women being inferior to men.
- His theory sees women as failed masculinity due to way that girls and boys experience phallic stage of development.
- Suggested that women inevitably suffer from penis envy as they cannot experience strong identification with their same sex parent due to lack of castration anxiety. - women have weaker super egos.
- Makes women morally inferior to men and more corruptible.
- Alpha bias as Freud exaggerates differences between men and women morals.
- Devalues women morals in comparison to men.
5
Q
Beta bias
A
- When findings ignore or minimise or underestimate differences between males and females.
- Often occurs when female participants are not used within the study and it is assumed that research findings apply equally to both sexes.
6
Q
Example of Beta bias
A
- Fight or flight response.
- Much evidence comes from research on rats looking at changes in hormones when they are deliberately stressed.
- Traditional technique has favoured using male animals as their hormones are more stable than female animals.
- Beta bias as when fight or flight response was first recognised and understood it was assumed to be universal for both males and females despite not using a female sample.
- Taylor found evidence that there are differences in this biological mechanism and that females when stressed produce a tend and befriend response which evolved to protect young.
7
Q
Androcentrism
A
- Result of beta bias.
- If our understanding of what is normal is the result of using an all male sample any behaviour that deviates from this standard will be considered abnormal or inferior.
- Results in female behaviour being misunderstood and perhaps pathologised - seen as psychological disorder.
8
Q
Example of Androcentrism
A
- Many feminists object to the diagnostic category of pre menstrual syndrome - trivialises and stereotypes female experience.
- Critics suggest that PMS is a social construct which medicalises female emotions in terms of hormones.
- Male anger is often seen as a rational response to external pressures.
9
Q
Evaluation of Gender Bias - Implications
A
- Gender biased research may provide scientific justification to deny women opportunities within the workplace or wider society. - PMS
- In any domain which men are used to set standard of normalcy - becomes normal for women to feel abnormal - Tarvis
- Weakness - research may have damaging consequences which affect the lives and prospects of real women.
10
Q
However - Implications
A
- Feminist psychologists, universities and government are working hard to redress the balance.
11
Q
Evaluation of Gender Bias - Feminist Psychology
A
- Have attempted to challenge androcentrism in psychology.
- Judith Worrell put forward a number of criteria that should be adhered when doing research such as making women the focus of study rather than the object of study; diversity within groups should be examined rather than comparisons made between women and men.
- Should be greater emphasis placed on collaborative research methods that collect qualitative as opposed to numerical data.
- Strength - studying women in meaningful real life contexts is less gender biased and a preferable way of doing research.
12
Q
However - Feminist Psychology
A
- Must remember that there have been huge improvements in this area compared to decades ago.
13
Q
Evaluation of Gender Bias - Reverse Alpha Bias
A
- Entails finding out what the real differences are between men and women and emphasising the value of women instead of devaluing them as they are different to men.
- To show how women are better than men - Cornwell showed that women are better than learning as they are more flexible, better organised and pay more attention than men do.
- Strength - such research provides counter stereotypes to those that suggest men are superior.
14
Q
However - Reverse Alpha Bias
A
- Many researchers who believe there are a lot more similarities between men and women than there are differences
15
Q
Evaluation of Gender Bias - Bias in research methods
A
- 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 get their work published and studies which find evidence of gender differences are more likely to appear in journal articles than those that do not.
- Weakness - psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism that creates bias in theory and research.
- This bias must be recognised in processes such as peer review and staff recruitment in research organisations.
