Gender Bias

Question 1

Universality and Bias

Answer 1

• Psychologists possess beliefs and values that have been influenced by the social and historical context within which they live.
• Bias may be an inevitable aspect of the research process.
• Psychologists might make to have discovered ‘facts’ about human behaviour that are ‘objective’ and ‘value-free’.
  -It also challenges psychology’s claims to universality that conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone, anywhere, regardless of time or culture.

Question 2

Whats Androcentrism?

Answer 2

Androcentrism means being centred on, or dominated by males and can be conscious or unconscious.
-If our understanding of what counts as ‘normal’ behaviour isbeing drawn from research that involves all-male samples, then any behaviour that deviates from thisstandard is likely to be judged as ‘abnormal’, ‘inferior’ or
‘deficient’ by comparison.

• This leads tofemale behaviour being misunderstood and pathologized that is, taken as a sign of psychological instability or disorder.

Question 3

What is Alpha Bias?

Answer 3

• Alpha bias within psychological research is that which exaggerates or overestimates differences between the sexes.
  -Such differences are typically presented as real and
  inevitable.
• Although thesedifferences may occasionally heighten the value of women, they are
  more likely to devalue females in relation to their male counterparts.

Question 4

What is Beta Bias?

Answer 4

-Beta bias ignores, minimises or underestimates differences between men and women.

-This often occurs when female participants are not included as part of the research process and
then it is assumed thatresearch findings apply equally to both sexes.

Question 5

A03 - Beta Bias

Answer 5

• Gender bias is evident throughout psychological research, eg the tend or befriend response to stress
  which is adopted by some women in order to care for the vulnerable people around them was overlooked for many years because the focus has been predominantly on how males react in a stressful situation.

-It is important that we examine previous theories and consider their sample and if androcentrism is a feature then we should consider the research again fully with a more
representative sample.

Question 6

A03 - Moral Reasoning

Answer 6

• Gender bias might result in androcentrism which is the belief that men’s behaviour represents the norm and therefore that any behaviour typical of women might be judged abnormal.

-Theories like Kohlberg’s theory of moral reasoning have been based on findings from
research which was based upon white middle class males.

• Because of this, research into moral development has suggested that women’s morality might be less sophisticated than that of men.

-Gilligan theorised that females focus is on care, whilst males focus is on justice. Therefore, there may be potential differences in the moral reasoning of males and females, but it doesn’t mean that one has more worth than the other.

-Likewise, maybe we should examine differences within genders. The
acknowledgement of the presence of gender bias means that we should be cautious
when criticising and developing theories

Question 7

A03 - Kitzinger

Answer 7

• Kitzinger (1998) argues that questions about sex differences aren’t just scientific questions, they’re also political.
• Gender differences are distorted to maintain the status of male power. Feminists argue
  that although gender differences are minimal or non-existent, they are used against women to maintain male power.
• Judgements about an individual women’s ability are made on the basis of average differences between the sexes or biased sex-role stereotypes, and this also had the effect of
  lowering women’s self-esteem; making them think they have to improve
  themselves
• This is important as it further emphasises the necessity of being reflexive to consider the impact of all psychological research on individuals.