Gender bias

Question 1

What is universality?

Answer 1

An underlying characteristic of human behaviour that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Gender bias and culture bias can threaten universality.

Question 2

Define gender bias.

Answer 2

Psychological research or theory that may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women (usually women)

Question 3

What is alpha bias?

Answer 3

• psychological research that exaggerates the differences between men and women
• these differences are usually presented as fixed and inevitable
• sometimes these differences heighten the value of women but more often they devalue women in relation to men.

Question 4

What is one example of alpha bias? (F)

Answer 4

• An example of alpha bias is Freuds theory of psychosexual development.
• During the phallic stage the electra and oedipus complex occurs
• In boys this creates strong castration anxiety. This is resolved when the boy identifies with their father
• However, for girls their identification with their mother is weaker and less emphasised, this means her superego is weaker ( as the superego develops from taking their same gender parents moral persecpective)
• This infers that girls are morally inferior to boys

Question 5

What are two more examples of alpha bias?

Answer 5

1. Wilsons sociobiological theory of relationship formation suggests that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined whereas promiscous females are going against their nature. This is because females need to be more selective when choosing mates due to their limited supply of eggs.
2. Schizophrenia is also more frequently diagnosed in males compared to women. This is according to Cohen as women are more likely to be able to continue to work and maintain good interpersonal relationships, showing less distress. This means that women may mask their sympyoms enough to not merit a diagnosis

Question 6

What is an example of alpha bias that favours women?

Answer 6

• Nancy chodorow suggested that daughters and mothers have a greater connctedness than sons and mothers due to biological similarities
• As a result, women are able to develop better abilities to bond with others and emphasise

Question 7

What is beta bias?

Answer 7

Research that focuses on similarities between men and women and therefore tends to present a view that ignores or minimises key differences in men and women.

Question 8

Give one example of beta bias? (FOF)

Answer 8

-Biological research has favoured male animals as opposed to females due to hormonal changes during ovulation. This means the results from these studies were then generalised to females, ignoring the differences between the two sexes
- Shelley Taylot claimed that this is no true and described the tend and befriend response. The love hormone, oxytocin is more plentiful in women, therefore women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production . This means instead of fight or flight, they tend to tend and befriend ( evolutionary reponse for looking after others)

Question 9

What is another example of beta bias? (K)

Answer 9

• kohlbergs levels of moral reasoning was developed on the basis of studying American makes who all answered questions based on moral dilemmas (for example the heinz dilemma). These results were then generalised to represent moral reasoning in men and women.

Question 10

Define androcentrism?

Answer 10

• This is the consequence of beta bias and occurs when all behaviour is compared to a male standard, making females out to be abnormal and exclude them

Question 11

What is an example of androcentrism?

Answer 11

PMS has been criticised as a social construction and trivialises female emotion, particularly anger.
- However, mens anger is seen as a logical response to external pressures (Brescoll and Uhlman)

Question 12

What is a limitation of gender bias?

Answer 12

• One limitations is that gender differences are often presented as fixed and enduring (alpha bias) when they are not
• Maccoby and jacklin presented the findings of several gender stufies which concluded that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have better spatial ability
• They suggested that these differences are hardwired into the brain before scanning. These findings were widely reported and seen as factual
• However, Daphna Joel used brain scanning and found no differences in brain structure or processing.
• This means that Maccoby and Jacklins research was popularised as it fitted existing sterotypes

Question 13

What is another limitation of gender bias? (S)

Answer 13

• Another limitation is that gender bias promotes sexism in the research process
• Murphy - although most undergraduate intakes for psychology are women, lectureres are more likely to be men. This means that research is likely to be conducted by men and disadvantage participants who are women
• For example, a male researcher may expect women to be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks which leads to expectations in research for them to underperform

Question 14

What is a limitation of gender bias? (GBR)

Answer 14

• A further limitation is that research challenging gender bias may not be published
• Formanowicz analysed more than 1000 articles relating to gender bias, published over eight years.
• They found that research on gender bias is funded less often and published by less prestigous journals, making individuals less aware of it and applying it to their own research
• This suggests that gender bias in psychological research may not be taken as seriously