Gender Bias Flashcards
What does it mean to have a “bias”?
Bias is a tendency to treat one individual in a different way from others.
What does it mean to have a “gender bias”
Gender bias refers to how psychological research offers a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women (usually women).
Why is bias in psychology important to think about and understand?
it undermines psychology’s claims to be universal/universality (conclusions drawn from one specific experiment can be applied to everyone, regardless of the time or culture)
What are the two types of bias’?
Alpha Bias and Beta Bias
What is alpha bias?
research that focuses on the differences between men and women, and therefore presents a view that exaggerates these differences.
Why is it bad for alpha bias to highlight differences between men and women?
It is bad for alpha bias to highlight this as it concludes these differences to be fixed and inevitable, which devalues women and makes them sound permanently inferior to men.
What is a classic example of alpha bias?
Freud (1905) and his theory of psychosexual development
What does freud’s theory of psychosexual development describe?
there are multiple stages: starts with the phallic stage where boys and girls develop a large attraction for the opposite parent
from here the boy creates a strong castration anxiety but is solved when the boy identifies with his father.
however, for girls they are unable to identify with their mother as much as the boy can with his father because of the fathers better moral perspective: therefore women are inferior to men.
what are some approaches that have elements of alpha bias?
the PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH tends to favour women. Chodorow (1968) suggested that mothers and daughters have a stronger connection than mother and son because of their biological similarities, meaning they have a better ability to bond and emphasise with others.
what is beta bias?
beta bias focuses on the similarities between men and women and often ignores, undermines of minimises the differences between them.
why does psychological research often use beta bias within it?
a lot of psychological research assumes that research findings can apply equally to men and women, although one of the genders may have possibly been excluded from the research process.
what is one example of beta bias?
one example of beta bias is FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE. esrly in its research it assumes that both males and females respond to threatening situations with fight or flight.
Although, TAYLOR ET AL (2000) claimed that this is untrue and instead describes it as the “tend and befriend” response.
what is the tend and befriend response and how does it reject beta bias (fight or flight response)?
the tend and befriend response is an evolved response for looking after others. this theory by taylor et al describes how the fight or flight response is wrong as women have more of the “love” hormone OXYTOCIN, meaning that they have less stress by increasing their production of this
(the fight or flight response is wrong as it minimises differences when we can see one right here).
what does the fight or flight response show about beta bias within psychological research?
the beta bias theory shoes how by it being included in psychological research it can result in a misrepresentation of women. other research or theories may have misrepresentation in MEN.
A03: What is one of the limitation of gender bias all to do with publishing?
One of the weaknesses of gender bias is that the research challenging gender bias’ may not be published. Formanowicz (2018) analysed more than 1000 articles relating to gender bias over 8 years and found that research on gender bias is published less often, meaning that less scholars, readers or psychologists are unable to successfully recognise their work
what is one of the limitations of gender bias to do with sexism in research
One of the limitations of gender bias is that it promotes sexism in the process. women are heavily underrepresented in university departments. this is seen by murphy et al (2014) which reveals how although the undergraduate students are mainly women the lecturers are mainly men.
This is important as it signifies how research is more likely to be conducted by men and how there may be a bias to their opinions, therefore misleading the female undergraduate students.
what is alpha and beta bias a result of?
androcentrism
what is androcentrism?
