Gender Bias

Question 1

Define gender bias

Answer 1

A differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences

Question 2

Define Universality

Answer 2

Assuming behaviours occur in all cultures in the same or similar ways

Question 3

Define Androcentrcism

Answer 3

The centering/focus of research/theories around men

Question 4

Define Alpha bias and provide an example

Answer 4

-A tendency to exaggerate differences between genders.
-Freud- as girls do not have opedius complex, they do not identify as strongly with mothers as boys to fathers, and so develop a weaker superego

Question 5

Define Beta bias and provide an example

Answer 5

-A tendency to minimise or ignore differences between genders.
-Asch- only male participants finding difference in line lengths but conformity generalised to all.

Question 6

Explain the implication of gender bias: misdiagnosis

Answer 6

-Loring and Powel- men found to be twice as likely to be misdiagnosed with schizophrenia than women, and women 2x with depression
-sets expectation for men to be less emotional, encourages labels and assumptions- can lead to alpha bias in future research

Question 7

Explain the implication of gender bias: sexism

Answer 7

-Women underrepresented in psychology (academic research and methodology) because lecturers and researchers more likely to be men.
-Leads to limited opportunities for women at senior level
-Leads to female concerns not being reflected in research, thus bias in research and in expectation of women’s ability at psychology
-and research challenging bias is less likely to be published.

Question 8

How can we avoid gender bias?

Answer 8

-Samples of both genders in future research
-Adopting a feminist approach in research- acknowledging previous research may be androcentric and including concerns of both genders into research
-Have research questions and methods checked over by the ethics committee to ensure there is no bias affecting question