Gender Bias Flashcards
What is universality and what is it challenged by?
-The idea that the findings in psychology studies can be applied to everyone
-Gender and Cultural Bias challenges universality
What are the two forms of gender bias?
-Alpha Bias
-Beta Bias
What is Alpha Bias and what is the problem with Alpha Bias ?
-A form of research that highlights the differences between men and woman
- Problem = tends to give a view that exaggerates the differences
What is an example of alpha bias research and why ?
-Freud’s theory of psychosexual development:
-Boys and Girls both go through the phallic stage where they grow a desire for opposite sex parent.
-For Boys this leads to castration anxiety and is resolved when they identify with their father, but a girls identification with their mother is weaker due to their superego being weaker.
This therefore suggests girls are morally inferior to boys
What is Beta bias and what is the problem with the research?
Research that focuses on similarities between girls and boys
-Minimises and ignores the differences between the boys and girls
What is one example of beta bias research?
-research on the fight/ flight response favoured male participants due to females mood being affected by hormonal changes
-This simply ignores differences between the two genders and suggests they both react the same
What research by Shelley Taylor (2000) disputed that males and females react the same in fight and flight scenarios?
-Taylor suggested that women have a tend to befriend response due to higher levels of oxytocin than men
-Women’s oxytocin is released in stressful situations which leads to a tend to befriend response being emitted.
What is Androcentrism and what problem does this cause?
-It is when behaviour is judged according to the male standard
-This means female behaviour is judged to be atypical or not normal by comparison
What is one example of Androcentrism in psychology?
-The pathologised nature of premenstrual syndrome
-Feminists have objected to this on the grounds that it medicalises females emotions by explaining these in hormonal terms, whereas males anger is seen as a rational response to pressure (Brescoll and Uhlmann)
What is the AO3 for Gender Bias?
L-Biological vs. Social explanations: One problem is that gender differences are presented as fixed and unchanging, when they are not. A study presented females but boys have better spatial skills and that these traits are hardwired. This has been cited by many studies but another study used live scanning and no difference in brain structures was found, and he suggested that the research was only used as it fit stereotypes.
-L:Sexism in research: women remain underrepresented in uni departments. Even though psychology uptake is mostly females, most lecturers tend to be men. This means that most research is going to come from men which may disadvantage female participants who researchers think wont be able to do tasks- researcher bias. Such expectations might mean females might fail at tasks and produce findings that are gender biased.
-Gender-biased research: Research challenging gender bias may go unpublished. In a review of 1000 articles in 8 years that found that research on gender bias is less funded and published less by prestigious journals. This means less people are aware of it or apply to their work. This means that gender bias may not be considered properly.
