Gender Bias

Question 1

define gender bias

Answer 1

the different treatment an/or representation of males and females, based on stereotypes and not real differences

Question 2

define universality

Answer 2

idea that results occur in both women and men as a result of the explanation

Question 3

define bias in terms of gender

Answer 3

the preference for one gender over another

Question 4

how does gender bias occur

Answer 4

• male only sample
• male behaviour is considered the standard
• biology underpinning behaviour can undermine social influences

Question 5

most of psychology has been male dominated leading to what two types of bias

Answer 5

alpha bias
beta bias

Question 6

what is androcentrism in terms of gender bias

Answer 6

takes male thinking/behaviour as normal, regarding female thinking/behaviour as deviant, inferior, abnormal

Question 7

what is alpha bias

Answer 7

this is the exaggeration of the difference between men and women where we devalue one gender over another

Question 8

example of alpha bias

Answer 8

Freud viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity

Question 9

what is beta bias

Answer 9

this is where assume that what is the same for men is the same for women minimising difference between us

Question 10

example of beta bias

Answer 10

fight or flight research done male animals, applying it to everyone whereas the tend and befriend response is more commonly shown by females

social influence research: asch, milgram, zimbardo all used male participants

Question 11

what are the small scale consequences of androcentrism

Answer 11

stigmatisation of women

Question 12

what are the large scale consequences of androcentrism

Answer 12

pathologized (seen as a sign of psychological instability)

Question 13

how to avoid gender bias

Answer 13

• do not use findings form research with one gender and apply it to both
  -make sure both males and females are used in experiments
  -use male and female researchers
  -don’t exaggerate the differences or ignore real differences
  -be sensitive when reporting findings reflecting your own gender biases

Question 14

Explain how milgram’s research was gender biased

Answer 14

he only used male p.t hwoever his results were generalised to the whole population

Question 15

who repeated milgrams experiment but with an australian female sample

Answer 15

Kilham and Mann

Question 16

what did Kilham and Mann find in their research into obedience but in females

Answer 16

only 16% of p.t went to full voltage
questioning if there was beta bias in milgram’s research

Question 17

why gender bias in research such a big problem

(scientific justification)

Answer 17

P: GB is a big problem in psych because it can change the way females are treated.
E: creating misleading assumptions that females are different to males.
L: This then reinforces damaging stereotypes as people can use scientific justification to justify their claims using research thats been published

Question 18

why is gender bias in the research process such a big problem
(sexism)

Answer 18

P: GB is a a big issue due to sexism in research process.
E: For example lack of women at senior research level, this is due to males being more likely to be published than females.
E: Also female p.t often work under male experimenters
L: which could lead to p.t being mislabelled as unreasonable/incapable

Question 19

what is the importance of reflexivity when talking about gender bias

Answer 19

P- GB is minimised through reflextivity.
E - This is when researchers acknowledge any bias that may have featured within a study.
E- This is better than pretending there was no bias at all.
L - This means that there are appropriate levels of caution when generalising results.