gender bias

Question 1

universality

Answer 1

• this is basically the ability to generalise universally.
• We try to apply a theory to all of humankind, despite all of our differences.
• Gender bias threatens the universality of Psychology.

Question 2

gender bias

Answer 2

the tendency to treat one sex in a different way from the other.

Question 3

Androcentrism

Answer 3

if something is androcentric, it means it is male-centred (e.g. Asch, Milgram or Zimbardo’s early research)

Question 4

Alpha Bias

Answer 4

the tendency to maximise the difference between the sexes leading to a misrepresentation of behaviour.

Question 5

Beta Bias

Answer 5

the tendency to minimise the difference between the sexes leading to a misrepresentation of behaviour.

Question 6

A03- Evolutionary Explanations of Relationships- Sexual Selection - alpha bias

Answer 6

• Evolutionary explanations of human sexual behaviour stipulate that men have an “evolved desire for sexual variety” i.e. cheating is not their fault.
• What we are really saying here is that it is not their fault, it is an unconscious, hard-wired biological drive.
• On the other hand, under evolutionary theory, women are viewed as defenceless monogamous creatures who are completely at the mercy of males’ sexual behaviour. Women have evolved to be faithful because of differences in reproductive fitness.
• This huge difference in the representation of the sexes is massively alpha biased and we know that there are many women and men across the world for whom this does not apply.

Question 7

A03- Biopsych - beta bias

Answer 7

• When the fight or flight response was initially researched and presented as a theory, it was based entirely on an all male sample (of animals, not even humans!) yet applied UNIVERSALLY to all humans- females too.
• More recently the beta bias in this was identified and psychologists developed the “tend and befriend” explanation in females instead.
• This is the idea that due to the presence of OXYTOCIN, the flight or fight response is INHIBITED in women and they seek to protect their young and befriend other women to increase the chances of protecting each other and their vulnerable children.
• Finally, there is research support for this theory, and the idea that men and women do respond very differently to stress. A meta-analysis of 26 studies showed that women were significantly more likely to seek social support than men when under stress, and respond by “tending and befriending” rather than “fight or flight”.

Question 8

AO3 - Asch - androcentrism + beta bias

Answer 8

• The result of beta bias in psychological research is that we end up with a view of human nature that is supposed to apply to men and women alike, but
  in fact, has a male or androcentric bias.
• For example, Asch’s (1955) conformity studies involved all male participants, as did many of the other conformity studies (e.g., Perrin & Spencer,
  1980) and therefore it was assumed that females would respond in the same way.