Gender Bias Flashcards
define gender bias
the different treatment an/or representation of males and females, based on stereotypes and not real differences
define universality
idea that results occur in both women and men as a result of the explanation
define bias in terms of gender
the preference for one gender over another
how does gender bias occur
- male only sample
- male behaviour is considered the standard
- biology underpinning behaviour can undermine social influences
most of psychology has been male dominated leading to what two types of bias
alpha bias
beta bias
what is androcentrism in terms of gender bias
takes male thinking/behaviour as normal, regarding female thinking/behaviour as deviant, inferior, abnormal
what is alpha bias
this is the exaggeration of the difference between men and women where we devalue one gender over another
example of alpha bias
Freud viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity
what is beta bias
this is where assume that what is the same for men is the same for women minimising difference between us
example of beta bias
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
what are the small scale consequences of androcentrism
stigmatisation of women
what are the large scale consequences of androcentrism
pathologized (seen as a sign of psychological instability)
how to avoid gender bias
- 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
Explain how milgram’s research was gender biased
he only used male p.t hwoever his results were generalised to the whole population
who repeated milgrams experiment but with an australian female sample
Kilham and Mann
what did Kilham and Mann find in their research into obedience but in females
only 16% of p.t went to full voltage
questioning if there was beta bias in milgram’s research
why gender bias in research such a big problem
(scientific justification)
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
why is gender bias in the research process such a big problem
(sexism)
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
what is the importance of reflexivity when talking about gender bias
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.
