Gender Bias

Question 1

What is gender bias?

Answer 1

The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes

Question 2

Universality

Answer 2

The aim to develop theories that apply to all people so conclusions drawn from psychological research can be applied to everybody

Question 3

Androcentrism

Answer 3

Dominated by the male viewpoint, providing a misleading or inaccurate representation of how females respond in a given situation. It can lead to alpha or beta bias

Question 4

Alpha bias

Answer 4

Tendency to over-emphasise differences between men and women (eg. Freud)

Question 5

Beta bias

Answer 5

Tendency to ignore/downplay differences between men and women (eg. Asch, Zimbardo, Milgram)

Question 6

Strength of gender bias

Answer 6

• Modern psychologists looking to increase value of women in society (eg. Cornwell found women show more attentive and organised behaviour in learning)

Question 7

Limitations of gender bias

Answer 7

• Lead to androcentrism (eg. Murphy highlighted lack of women appointed senior research positions in universities)
• Publication bias (eg. Formanowicz analysed 1000 articles related to gender bias and found such research is funded and featured in less prestigious journals)
• Differences presented as fixed and inevitable (eg. Joel brain imaging counteracts reaserch that girls have better verbal ability and boys have better spatial activity)