Gender Bias

Question 1

What are the two types of gender bias?

Answer 1

1) Alpha bias - where differences between male and females are exaggerated. Type can be used to undervalue one of the sexes. Differences are sometimes attributed to differences in biology.
2) Beta bias - where differences between male and females are ignored or minimised, can happen when studies just include participants of one gender but then the conclusions are applied to the whole population.

Question 2

What are androcentrism and estrocentrism?

Answer 2

1) Androcentrism - where males are viewed as being at the centre of culture. In psychological terms, male behaviour is seen as the norm. Can mean that theories made in relation to males are also applied to women, or it can mean that any differences that women display are seen as exceptions to the rule,
2) Estrocentrism - Where female behaviour is seen as the norm. Much rarer phenomenon than androcentrism.

Question 3

What research designs make gender bias more likely?

Answer 3

1) When a research question is first proposed and an aim is formed, psychologists need to be careful that they are not unconciously including any gender stereotypes.
2) Participants for research should be selected in a non-biased way. Many early studies in psychology only used male university students, this could have had the effect of producing beta-biased theories.
3) Researchers can sometimes unconsciously treat male and female participants differently during a study to avoid this they should make sure that male and female participants are spoken to in the same manner. If treated differently, researchers are introducing extraneous variables that may produce a false gender difference,
4) Be aware that gender stereotypes can affect their expectations about the outcomes of their research. Expectations can affect the results that they record, or the way that they interpret their results.

Question 4

What can gender bias also be created as a result of?

Answer 4

• Publication bias,
• Been reported that studies that produced positive findings are more likely to be published than studies that don’t show any differences; those showing more of a difference between male and female are more likely to be published,
• Can exaggerate differences between males and females, producing an alpha bias.