Gender bias ID

Question 1

universality

Answer 1

any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing

Question 2

gender bias

Answer 2

when considering human behaviour, bias is a tendency to treat one individual or group in a different way from others

Question 3

andocentrism def

Answer 3

male-centred, when ‘normal’ behaviour is judged to a male standard

Question 4

alpha bias def

Answer 4

research that focuses on differences between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that exaggerates these differences

Question 5

beta bias def

Answer 5

research that focuses on similarities between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that ignores or minimises differences

Question 6

universality and bias

Answer 6

All psychologists’ beliefs and values have been influenced by various factors. The beliefs may be biased, which inevitably means that bias in the research process can not be stopped. Bias also undermines psychology’s claim to universality that conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone.

Question 7

alpha bias explanation

Answer 7

Psychological research that exaggerates differences, which are often fixed and inevitable. Sometimes, these differences heighten the value of women, but more often they devalue women in relation to men.

Question 8

Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages:

Answer 8

• Phallic stage → both genders develop desire for opposite-gender parent
• Creates strong castration anxiety in boys
• This is resolved when boy identifies with father
• Girls eventual identification with mothers is weaker, so superego is weaker
• Therefore women are morally inferior to boys

Question 9

Chodorow challenging freud

Answer 9

daughters and mothers have a greater connectedness than sons and mothers because of biological similarities. As a result of the child’s closeness, women develop better abilities to bond with others and empathise.

Question 10

beta bias explanation

Answer 10

Psychological research that ignores or underestimates differences. Happens when the assumption is made that research findings apply to both men and women equally.

Question 11

fight or flight

beta bias

Answer 11

• Biological research favoured using male animals because female behaviour is affected by regular hormone changes due to ovulation
• Ignores any possible differences
• Early research assumed that both males and females respond to threatening situation with fight or flight

Question 12

Taylor et al claimed that fight or flight is false:

Answer 12

• Tend and befriend response
• Women have more ‘love’ hormone oxytocin
• Women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production
• Reduces fight or flight response

Question 13

beta bias conclusion

Answer 13

Therefore, research that minimises gender differences may result in a misrepresentation of women’s behaviour. But there have been studies where men were misrepresented e.g. the role of the father in attachment.

Question 14

Over time psychology has presented a what dominated world?

Answer 14

a male-dominated version of the world, e.g. the APA published a list of the 100 most influential psychologists which only included 6 women. Thus suggesting that psychology has traditionally been a subject produced by men, for men and about men.

Question 15

Feminist view on andocentric psychology

Answer 15

Feminists objected to the diagnostic category premenstrual syndrome e.g. medicating women’s emotions by explaining them in hormonal terms. However, mens anger is seen as a rational response to external pressures - Brescoll and Uhlmann.

Question 16

biological vs social explanations - Gender differences often presented as fixed when they aren’t

limitation

Answer 16

• Maccoby and Jacklin presented findings of several gender studies
• Concluded that girls have superior verbal ability and boys have better spatial ability
• They suggested that these differences are ‘hardwired’ into the brain before birth
• Joel et al used brain scanning and found no sex differences in brain structure or processing
• So it is possible that Maccoby and Jacklin’s research was popularised
  We should be wary of accepting research findings

Question 17

counterpoint for bio vs social explanations

strength

Answer 17

• Psychologists should not avoid studying gender differences in the brain
• Ingalhalikar et al suggests that stereotype of women being better at multitasking may have some biological truth
• Women’s brain benefit from better connections between left and right hemisphere than in a man’s brain
  Biological differences but er should still be wary of exaggerating behaviour.

Question 18

sexism in research

Answer 18

• Women remain underrepresented in STEM
• Although psychologies undergraduate is mostly women, lecturers tend to be men - Murphey et al
• Research is more likely to be conducted by men, disadvantaging female participants
• Eg a male might expect a women to be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks - Nicolson
• Likely to mean that women underperform in research studies
  Institutional structures and methods as psychology may produce findings that are gender-biased

Question 19

Gender-biased research -
Research challenging gender biases may not be published

limitation

Answer 19

• Fornanowicz et al analysed 1000 articles relating to gender bias, published over 8 years
• Research on gender bias is funded less often and published by less prestigious journals
• Fewer scholars become aware of this or apply it in their own work
  Gender bias in psychological research may not be taken as seriously as other forms if bias