gender bias- issues and debates Flashcards
what is universality
psychologists hold belief and values influenced by social and historical context within which they live
beliefs may be biased
means bias in research process may be inevitable
bias undermines psychologys claims to universality that conclusions can be drawn can be applied to everyone anywhere regardless of time and culture
what is alpha bias
exaggerates gender differences
differences presented as fixed and inevitable
differences heighten value of women or devalue women in relation to men
freud- phallic stage of development both boys and girls develop desire for their opposite gender parent, in boy creates castration anxiety, anxiety is resolved when boy identifies with father, girls eventual identification with same gender parent weaker which means superego weaker, girls morally inferior to boys or men
can sometimes favour women
chodorow suggested daughters and mothers have greater connectedness than sons and mothers because of biological similarities
as a result of childs closeness women develop better abilities to bond with others and empathise
what is beta bias
ignores or underestimates differences
assume research findings apply equally to both men and women even when women have been excluded from research process
fight or flight response- biological research favoured using male animals because female behaviour affected by regular horonal changes due to ovulation, ignores any possible differences, assued that both males and females respond to threatening situations with fight or flight
taylor claimed that this is not true and described the tend and befriend, love hormone oxytocin more plentiful in women and seems women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production, reduces fight or flight response and enhances preference for tend and befriend
research minimises gender differences may result misinterpreation of womens bhevaiour
other research misinterpretated men
attachment- assymed emotional care provided solely by mothers, research on role of fathers shows fathers can supply emotional care assumed to be province of women
what is androcentrism
alpha and beta consequences of androcentrism
psychology presented male dominated world
american psychological association published list of 100 most influential psychologists only 6 were women, suggests psychology traditionally been subject produced by men for men and about men
womens behaviour considered misunderstood and at worst pathologised
feminists objected to the diagnostic category premenstrual syndrome on grounds that it medicalises womens emotions such as anger by explaining these in hormonal terms
mens anger seen as rational response to external pressures
what is biological versus social explanations
gender differences presented as fixed and enduring when they arent
maccoby and jacklin presented findings of several gender studies concluded that girls ahve superior verbal ability whereas boys have better spatial ability, suggested these differences are hardwired into brain before birth, become widely reported and seen as facts
joel used brain scanning and found no sex differences in brain structure of processing, possible data from maccoby and jacklin populatised because fitted existing stereotypes of girls as speakers and boys as doers
suggests we should be wary of accepting research findings as biological facts when they might be explained better as social sterotypes
does not mean psychologists should avoid studying possible gender differences in brain
ingalhalikar suggests popular social stereotype that women are better at multitasking may have biological truth to it
womens brain may benefit from better connections between right and left hemisphere than in a man brain
suggests there may be biological differences we should still be wary of exaggerating the effect they have on behaviour
what is sexism in research
gender bias promotes sexism in research process
women remained underrpresented in uni departments
lecturers in psychology dep. more likely to be men
research is more likely to be conducted by men disadvantages women
male researcher expect women to be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks and these expectations likley to mean that women underperform in research studies
institutional structures and methods of psychology may produce findings that are gender biased
what is gender biased research
research challenging gender biases not published
formanowicz analysed more than 1000 articles relating t gender bias published over 8yrs
found research on gender bias funded less often and published by less prestigious journals
fewe scholars become aware of it or apply it within their own work
researchers argued that this still held true when gender bias was comapred with other forms of bias when other factors were controlled and methodology used
suggests gender bias may not be taken seriously as other forms of bias
what is universality (culture bias)
henrich reviewd hundreds of studies in leading psychology journals and found 68% research pps came from US and 96% came from industrialised nations
another found 80% were undergraduates studying psychology
suggest that we know about human behaviour has a strong cultural bias
WEIRD-westernised education from industrialised rich democracies
norm or standard of particular behaviour set by WEIRD people then the behaviour of people from the opposite seen as abnormal inferior or unusual
what is ethnocentrism
superiority of ones own cultural group
ainsworth and bells strange situation- criticised as reflecting only norms and values of what is sometimes called western culture
conducted research on attachment type suggesting that ideal attachment was characterised by babies showing moderate amounts of distress when left alone by their mother figure, led to misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries wheich were seen to deviate from american norm
japanese infants more likely to be classed as insecurely attached because they showed considerable distress on separation
likely finding due to japanese babies rarely separated from mothers
what is cultural relativism
berry drawn distinction between etic and emic approaches in study of human behaviour
etic- behaviour from outside of given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
emic-functions from inside a culture and identifies behaviours that are specific to that culture
strange situation-imposed etic studied behaviour inside one culture and assumed ideal attachment type could be applied universally
psychology guilty imposed etic approach arguing that theories model concepts are universal when they actually came about through emic research inside single culture
psychologists should be more mindful of cultural relativism of their research so can avoid cultural bias
what is classic studies
influential studies culturally biased
feature of many classic studies in social influence
Asch and Milgrams original studies were conducted with US pps, replications of these studies in different countries produced different results
Asch type experiemnets in collectivist cultures found higher rates of conformity than the original US study
suggests understanding of topics such as social influecne should only be applied to individualist cultures ]
individualist collectivist distinction no longer applies-wordl increase media globalisation
traditional argument individualist cultures value individuals and independence whilst collectivist cultures value society and needs of the group
takano and osaka found 14/15 studies that comapred US and japan found no evidence of individualism and collectivism describing distinction as lazy and simplistic
cultural bias in research may be less of an issue in more recent research
what is cultural psychology
emergence of cultural psychology
cultural psychology (Cohen) the study of how people shape and are shaped by cultural experience
emerging field and incorporates work from researchers in other disciplines including anthropology and sociology and political science
strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking and emic approach and conducting research from insdie a culture
cross cultural research tends to focus on just two cultures instead on larger scale
suggests modern psychologysts are mindful of dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it
what is ethnic stereotyping
led to prejudice against gorups of people
gould explained how first intelligence tests lef to eugenic social policies in us
psychologists used opportunity of ww1 to pilot their first iq tests on 1.75mil army recruits
many of items of test were ethnocentri- assuming everyone would know names of us presidents
result was that recruits from southern eastern europe and african americans received lowest scores
poor performance of these groups was not taken as a sign of tests inadequacy but was used to inform racist discourse about genetic inferiority of particular cultural and ethnic groups
ethnic minorities were deemed mentally unift and feeble minded in comaprison to white majority and were denied educational and professional opportunities as result
illustrates how cultural bias can be used to justfy prejudice and discrimination towards cultural and ethnic groups
