Gender bias Flashcards
universality
-any underlying characteristic of a human being that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing/ regardless of time or culture
Gender bias
-psychological research/theories may offer a view that mat not represent the experience of men or women
Types of gender bias
List
Alpha bias
Beta bias
Alpha bias
-psychological research that exaggerates/overestimates the differences between men and women
Alpha bias
Example
-sociobiological theory of relationship formation (Wilson, 1975)
└explains human sexual attraction and behaviour through the principle of ‘survival efficiency’
└in males interest to impregnate as many women as possible to increase the chances of his genes being passed on to the next generation.
└in females interest to care for her offspring so her genes are passed down
└sexual promiscuity genetically determined in males, goes against females nature- alpha bias + essentialist
Beta bias
-psychological research that minimises/underestimates the differences between men and women
└often when females not included in a research process and the findings are assumed to apply equally to both sexes
Beta bias
Example
-e.g. Kohlbergs theory of moral development (1973)
└longitudinal study of a sample of American men
-e.g. fight or flight response
└early research into fight or flight based only on male animals (as female hormones fluctuate)
└assumed to be a general response to a threatening situation
-e.g. Shelley Taylor et al (200)
Androcentrism
- when ‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to a male standard
- female behaviour often judged to be ‘abnormal’ or deficient’ in comparison
- can lead to misunderstanding of behaviour or taken as a sign of a psychological disorder
Androcentrism
Example
└e.g. some feminists objected to the diagnostic category pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) as it stereotypes and trivialises female experience
└Brescoll and Uhlman (2008)
└claim PMS is a social construction which medicalises female emotions (anger) by explaining through hormones
└male anger often seen as a rational response to external pressures
Gender bias
Limitations
Summary
Implications of gender bias - Carol Tavris (1993)
Sexism within research process - Dambrin and Lambert (2008)
Reflexivity - Walkerdine (1990)
Gender bias
Limitations
Implications of gender bias
└gender biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour, fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discrimination
└may provide scientific ‘justification’ to deny women opportunities within the workplace/society (e.g. PMS)
└Carol Tavris (1993)
└in any domain which men set the standard of normalcy ‘it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal’.
└as well as methodological problem, damages lives and prospects of real women
└e.g. women twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression than men
Gender bias
Limitations
Sexism within research process
└the lack of women appointed at senior research level means female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions asked
└male researchers more likely to have their work published
└studies that find evidence of gender differences more likely to appear in journal articles
└laboratory experiment may disadvantage women
Gender bias
Limitations
Reflexivity
-awareness of effect of persona; biases on research
-Dambrin and Lambert (2008)
└reflect on own gender related experiences in their study of women in executive positions in accountancy firms
Gender bias
Limitations
Essentialism
-many reported gender differences in the past have been based on essentialist perspective
└essentialist perspective: that gender difference is inevitable (essential) and fixed in nature
-Walkerdine (1990)
└in 1930s researchers said intellectual activity like attending uni shrivelled a woman’s ovaries
└political arguments disguised as facts
