Gender bias

Question 1

what is universality

Answer 1

conclusions can be applied to everyone anywhere regardless off time or culture

Question 2

what is alpha bias

Answer 2

• research that exaggerates difference
• differences are presented as fixed and inevitable
  -devalue women in relation to men

Question 3

example of alpha bias

Answer 3

• Freud’s theory of psychosexual development (1905)
• during the phallic stage of development both boys and girls develop a desire for ther opposivte gener parent
• in boys this creates strong castration anxiety
• anxiety is resolved when the boy identifies with his father
• a girls eventual identification with her mother is weaker which means her superego is weaker (develops as a result of taking on the same gender parents moral perspective)
• therefore women are morally inferior to men

Question 4

what is beta bias

Answer 4

• research that ignores or underestimates difference
• when we assume that research findings apply equally to both men and women even when women have been excluded from the research process

Question 5

example of beta bias

Answer 5

• fight or flight response
• biological research favored using male animals because female behavior is affected by regular hormonal changes
• this ignores any possible differences
• early research into fight or flight assumed that both males and females respond to threatening situations with fight or flight
• Taylor et al (2000) claimed that females have a tend and befriend response
• oxytocin (love hormone is more plentiful in women) so women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production

Question 6

what is androcentrism

Answer 6

• alpha bias and beta bias are consequences of androcentrism
• american psychological association published a list of the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century which included only 6 women
• psycholgy had traditionally been a subject produced by men for men and about men
• feminist have objected to the PMS as it dismisses female anger as hormonal whilst men anger is seen as a rational response to external pressure

Question 7

limitations of gender bias

Answer 7

1. biological vs social explanation
   - gender differences are often presented as fixed and enduring when they aren’t
   - Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) presented the findings of several gender studies which concluded that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boy have better spatial ability and concluded that differences are hard wired into the brain before birth
   - however Joel et al (2015) used brain scanning and found no sex differences in brain structures
   - data form Maccoby and Jacklin was popularised because it fitted existing stereotypes of girls a speaker and boys as doeros
2. sexism in research
   - women remain underrepresented in university departments
   - although psychology undergraduate intake is mainly of women lectures in the psychology department they are more likely to be men (Murphy et al 2014)
   - this means that research is more likely to be conducted by man and may disadvantage participants who are women
   - research may expect women to be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks (Nicolson 1995)
3. gender bias research
   - research challenging gender bias may not be published
   - Formanowicz et al (2018) analysed more than 1000 articles relating to gender bias published over 8 years
   - found that research on gender bias is funded less and published less by prestigious journals
   - this means that fewer scholars become aware of it or apply it within their own work