Gender Bias Flashcards
What is gender bias?
When researchers findings are influenced by historical/social context they live in.
Differences between genders are misrepresented.
What is alpha bias?
Exaggerating differences between men and women.
More often devalue women in relation to men
Example of alpha bias
Freud’s research on psychosexual stages
In phallic stage, both girls and boys develop desire for opposite-gendered parents.
Creates castration anxiety in boys.
Resolved when boy identifies with father.
Girls identification with same-gendered parents is weaker = weaker superego
Women morally inferior to men
Alpha bias in favour to women?
Nancy Chodorow (1968)
Daughters and others have greater connectedness than sons and mothers because of biological similarities.
—> Childhood closeness = better ability to bond/empathise with others.
What is beta bias?
When researcher ignores/minimises difference between men and women
Example of beta bias
Research on flight or fight response.
Favour using male animals as female animals’ hormones are affected during ovulation.
Shelley Taylor et al (2000) = tend and befriend response.
Love hormone oxytocin is more plentiful in women.
Women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production.
Attachment = role of the father
Gender bias in observations?
Incomplete behavioural categories as women and men do not respond in same way.
Gnder bias in conclusions
Media outlets sensationalise differences in men/women
——-> example of alpha bias
Different conclusions derived from the same source of research
Bias in experimental design
Some researchers do not take gender into account.
BETA BIAS
Example of Stilnox
(drug to help with insomnia)
Safe for male ppts
Dangerous side effects to female ppts
Lack of population validity
What is androcentrism?
Male-centered studies
Experimental psychology as a discipline is androcentric
Woman behaviour = misunderstood
Brescoll and Uhlmann 2008.
Diagnostic category of premenstrual syndrome. —-> woman anger medicalised in hormonal terms, whereas men’s anger seen as rational response to external pressures.
What does the term ‘androcentric bias’ refer to?
Male centered research generalised to whole population
Lack of validity and reliability because findings may not be same for both genders.
Androcentrism in Freud.
Penis envy is when females are angry at their mothers for being born female.
Males = desirable
Females= abnormal
Concept that all women want to be like men.
idea that women are inferior
Androcentric alpha bias – differences between men and women is enormous + permanent.
Limitation of gender bias
Biological vs social explanations
Often presented as fixed when they are not.
Maccoby + Jacklin (1974). = presented several gender studies:
Girls = superior verbal abilities
Boys = better spatial abilities.
Suggested differences ‘hardwired’ in brain before birth.
Studies —> widely reported
Limitation
Biological vs social explanations pt 2
Joel et al (2015)
Conducted brain scans
Found no such differences in brain structure or processing.
Data from Maccoby + Jacklin popularised because it fit into pre-existing stereotypes of girls as ‘speakers’ and boys as ‘doers’
Counterpoint
Still some sex differences found in brain.
Ingalhalikar et al (2014) —> popular stereotype of women = better multitaskers has some truth.
Women’s brain has better connections between right + left hemispheres in comparison to men.
Biological differences present —> should not be exaggerated.
Limitation
Sexism in research
Women = unrepresented
Murphy et al (2014)
Psychology undergraduates = more women
Lecturers in psychology = more men
Male researchers may expect women to behave more irrationally (Nicolson 1995) —-> expectations may result in women underperforming in tasks.
Institutional structures and methods of psych may produce gender- bias studies
Another limitation
Gender- bias research in media
Research challenging gender bias may not be published.
Formanowicz et al (2018)
Analysed 1000 studies on gender bias over 8 years
———-> Found research on gender less funded + published in less prestigious journals.
Lack of awareness.
Other factors more likely to be controlled like ethnic bias.
Suggests gender bias not taken as seriously compared to other forms of bias.
Gynocentrism in research
Woman centered research.
E.g: Moscovici minority influence + Ainsworth strange situation
