gender bias and culture bias

Question 1

what is personal bias

Answer 1

Personal bias is when researchers aren’t objective when they carry out research.

Question 2

what is gynocentrism

Answer 2

focus on women in research

Question 3

what is universality

Answer 3

the assumption that research can be applied to everyone, everywhere, regardless of culture and time

a theory of behaviour that applies to everyone.

Question 4

What is it called when theories try to generalise, in a way that applies to everyone?

Answer 4

nomothetic approach

Question 5

what is bias

Answer 5

a distortion in representation of a group or data

Question 6

what is gender bias

Answer 6

a distorted view of behaviours that may be typical or atypical for men and/or women

Gender bias is when the differences between men and women are misrepresented

Question 7

what is androcentrism

Answer 7

a gender bias that reflects a male centred view of the world often to the neglect or exclusion of women

“male behaviour is the norm and female is abnormal/less desirable and women need fixing”

Question 8

what are the 2 types of bias for gender bias

Answer 8

alpha and beta bias

Question 9

what is alpha bias

Answer 9

refers to theories that EXAGGERATE gender differences, they reinforce gender STEREOTYPES

can make up these differences and so one gender is devalued

Question 10

what is one problem with alpha bias

Answer 10

when males take a male prespective females may be compared to the male standard and then devalued as a consequence

Question 11

what is beta bias

Answer 11

theories that ignore or minimise gender differences

assume all genders are the same and therefore is ok to apply same theories and methods. theories are produced that claim to have universality

Question 12

what is culture bias/cultural bias

Answer 12

tendency to judge all people in terms of your own culture assumptions, distorts or biases our own judgement

When researchers misrepresent the differences between cultures

Question 13

what is a culture/subcultures

Answer 13

cultures are values, beliefs, patterns of behaviour that are shared by a group of people

subcultures are within cultures and they have shared value systems also eg in britain ethic minority groups form subcultures as well as social class and youth. (egs)

Question 14

what is ethnocentrism

Answer 14

the tendency to use the standards, norms and values of ones own culture as the baseline against which other cultures can be evaluated

When someone focuses on their own cultural perspective.

when the focus of research is restricted to a particular culture (/s)

Sometimes, this also involves assuming that their own cultural perspective is correct, or MORE IMPORTANT, and sometimes seeing the social practises of other cultures as WRONG

Question 15

what are the consequences of ethonocentrism on validity (2 things)

Answer 15

Ethnocentrism may mean that results are not generalisable to other cultures, which reduces external validity.

Ethnocentrism may mean that research does not accurately measure the factors it intends to measure, which decreases internal validity.

Question 16

When psychology research lacks validity or reliability due to ethnocentrism, we say that the research suffers from … and why could this be

Answer 16

ethnocentric bias

And this might be because the researchers ignored other cultures completely

Or because the researchers studied other cultures, but without understanding their cultural perspective

Question 17

what is ethnocentric bias and

Answer 17

when research lacks validity or reliability because researchers focus on their own cultural perspective.

it can be prevented by cultural relativism

Question 18

But, due to cultural differences, the results may not generalise to all cultures, and this means that the results may lack…

(consequence of ethnocentrism)

Answer 18

external reliability and external validity

Question 19

consequence of ethnocentrism: mis….. +exp

Answer 19

ethnocentric standards for ‘normal behaviour’ mean that people from other cultures might be misdiagnosed with psychological conditions, because they are seen to be behaving abnormally

negative stereotypes about other cultures
other cultures being devalued

Question 20

consequence of ethnocentrism: seeing other cultures as ‘abnormal’ may lead to…

Answer 20

other cultures being devalued.
harmful stereotypes.

Question 21

who were the ps in ainsworths ss and why is that a limitation, exp

Answer 21

they were all middle class american mothers and so the findings may not generalise to other cultures because there are cultural variations/differences in attachment.

us- individualist = secure
other- collectivist = insecure resistant

SO ethnocentric bias

Question 22

because the method of the ss focused on western perspective of child behaviour what does it lack and what does it judge

Answer 22

the method lacks reliability, validity

and suffers from ethnocentric bias because it judges the babies from other cultures by the standards of western social norms

Question 23

Asch’s conformity experiment and Milgram’s obedience experiment involved only American participants, but claimed universality. So, these studies displayed ….. and why

Answer 23

ethnocentric bias

because they assumed that people from other cultures would behave like Americans.

Question 24

what is eurocentrism

Answer 24

a form of enthocentrism that is particularly focused on the western world viewpoint

Question 25

what is cultural relativism

Answer 25

where research may only relate to the culture it has studied.

behaviour cannot be properly judged unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates

Question 26

Cultural relativism prevents prejudice and discrimination, because it

Answer 26

values all cultures equally. It assumes that no one culture is normal and it doesn’t see other cultures as abnormal

Question 27

All of Milgram’s participants were men, and he concluded that anyone could be made to obey.

So, we can say that Milgram’s research displays…

Answer 27

beta bias

Question 28

how does the fight or flight response display gender bias, and explain

Answer 28

original research was on male animals but because female animals and different hormones to males they have a different endocrine response to stress as a result more likely to show a caring/protective response to stress - tend and befriend

beta bias

Question 29

3 studies suffering from beta bias (social influence)

Answer 29

asch, zimbardo, milgram

and theyre androcentric

Question 30

beta bias can lead to awful consequences eg women started falling asleep while driving after taking ..

Answer 30

stilnox

Question 31

what is the difference between andorcentrism and androcentric bias

Answer 31

When research focuses on male participants, that research is androcentric.

And when research lacks validity because it focuses on male participants, it suffers from androcentric bias

Question 32

Thea conducts a study, with only male participants, into the attitudes of fathers.

is this androcentrism or androcentric bias or both

Answer 32

androcentrism because she was focusing on male attitudes

Question 33

Tyler conducts a study, with only male participants, into the attitudes of soldiers.

is this androcentrism, androcentric bias or both

Answer 33

both

studying attitudes of male soldiers but generalising to all soldiers means it lacks validity

Question 34

When women find out that they aren’t like men, and get angry at their mothers for having been born female, they are experiencing …… according to Freud’s theory of Psychosexual Stages.

Answer 34

penis envy

Question 35

Because they suggest that there are enormous, permanent psychological differences between men and women, that do not exist, Freud’s theories suffer from…

Answer 35

androcentric alpha bias

Freud’s theories suffer from androcentricalpha bias, because they suggest that there are enormous, permanent psychological differences between men and women, and that female traits were abnormal and inferior..

Question 36

how is freud an example of androcentrism

Answer 36

Freud based his research on male participants and made assumptions about females from it

Question 37

When researchers suffer from androcentric bias, they reach invalid ……. , which provide an inaccurate and misleading picture of …… behaviour.

But, since experimental psychology as a discipline is so androcentric, researchers tend to be more interested in learning more about ….. behaviour, not in investigating …… behaviour.

Answer 37

conclusions
female
male
female

likely to remain unchallenged

Question 38

what are the etic and emic approaches for

Answer 38

approaches of carrying out research in different cultures

Question 39

what is an emic approach

Answer 39

involves the study of a culture from within to seek culturally specific phenomena and is associated with cultural relativism (the view that behaviour can only be understood when viewed from within the cultural context in which it originates

Question 40

cultural relativism is the idea that

Answer 40

behaviours must be understood from the perspective of a specific culture.

Question 41

If a researcher is studying minority influence among women, that’s not cultural relativism because ….

Answer 41

they’re studying the behaviour of women across all cultures, rather than understanding behaviour from the perspective of one specific culture.

Question 42

Which term is being referred to in the following definition?

An individual’s behaviours and cognitions must be understood in terms of that person’s own culture.

Answer 42

cultural relativism

Question 43

Which term is being referred to in the following definition?

When research is carried out in different cultures, to see whether results are the same everywhere, or are influenced by cultural factors.

Answer 43

cross cultural research

Question 44

how can you avoid ethnocentric bias (link to types of validity

Answer 44

by conducting cross-cultural research eg use ps from a range of cultures > method has face validity in all locations it is used > increase external validity

Question 45

a limitation of cultural relativism (alpha)

Answer 45

may exaggerate differences between cultures (cultural alpha bias) when really people across culture have things in common

can prevent psychs from producing universal theories when really they may actually have univerality

Question 46

a limitation of cultural relativism (beta)

Answer 46

is that it can ignore differences within a culture, which is a form of betabias.

Question 47

We’ve seen that Asch’s conformity research involves ethnocentric bias, because…

Answer 47

it assumes that all other cultures would conform in the same way as Americans.

it claims universality.

it lacks population validity

Question 48

what is cross cultural research

Answer 48

research being carried out in different cultures, to see if theories generalise, or if there are cultural variations.

researchers from a number of different cultures, to minimise the risk of ethnocentric bias.