Gender Bias

Question 1

What is gender bias

Answer 1

• preference to one gender over the other

- it can either exaggerate or minimise differences between males and females

Question 2

What are the two different types of gender bias

Answer 2

Alpha

Beta

Question 3

What is alpha bias

Answer 3

Exaggerates the difference between genders

Under value one of the sexes

Question 4

What is beta bias

Answer 4

Ignores the difference between genders
Can happen when studies just include participants of one gender but there conclusions are applied to the whole population

Question 5

What is universality

Answer 5

Recognises the difference but does not value one gender over the other

Question 6

What is androcentrism

Answer 6

Males are viewed as being the centre of the culture

Male behaviour is seen as the norm

Question 7

What is estrocentrism

Answer 7

Female behaviour is seen as the norm

Much rarer

Question 8

Research designs can make gender bias more likely

Answer 8

• erase arch question first proposed- need to be careful that they are not unconsciously including any gender stereotypes

Question 9

Participants

Answer 9

• should be selected in a non bias way
• many early studies only used male university students
• affected on producing beta bias
• then they would use this to generalise to the whole population even though half weren’t included

Question 10

Treatment of participants

Answer 10

• unconsciously treat make and females differently
• avoid they should make sure they are spoken to in the same manner
• if treated differently researchers will be introducing extraneous variables that may produce a false gender difference in the results that isn’t actually there

Question 11

Gender stereotypes

Answer 11

• can affect their expectations about the outcomes of research
• can affect the results that they record
• or they way they interpreted the results

Question 12

Published bias

Answer 12

• studies that produce positive findings are more likely to be published then ones that don’t find any differences
• a study showing the difference between males and females is more likely
• can exaggerate differences and so produce an alpha bias

Question 13

What some theories that show alpha bias

Answer 13

• Ainswlrth- presumes the child will have a good relationship with the mother when they don’t even consider the father
• Bowlby monotropic- same as it
• Geiger- men are expected to not have a secure attachment, what about single fathers?
• Freud- describe make behaviour as the norm, explaining female behaviour as anything which differs from the norm

Question 14

What are some theories that show beta bias

Answer 14

• Zimbardo
  Prisoners might change because of the research and become more suited to males rather than females
• asch
  Only conducted the study on males so hard to generalise to women so the conclusion could be completely wrong when applied to women