Issues and debates Flashcards
Why are gender and culture bias important
Threatened the universality of psychology
define universality
underlying characteristic of humans that can be applied to all despite differences, experience and upbringing
Alpha bias
Psych research exaggerates difference between sexes
Example of alpha bias
Freuds psychosecual development - during phallic stage - develop desire to opposite gender.
-boys have castration anxiety but resoled when identify with father (same sex)
-girl identification with same sex parent is weaker due to super ego being weaker so therefore girls and inferior to boys
-Chodorow (1968) - daughters and mothers have a greater connectedness than son due to biological similarities so women develop better abilities to bond and emphasise
Beta bias
Minimise the differences between the sexes
-occurs when females aren’t part of an experiment so we assume findings apply equally
Example of beta bias
Research of fight or flight
-Taylor (2000) women tend and befriend response - respond to stress by increasing oxytocin so reduced fight or flight
-research that minimises gender differences may result in a misrepresentation of women’s behaviour
Define androcentrism
when normal behaviour is judged according to male standard
consequence of androcentrism
leads to female behaviour beings misunderstood as it is conducted on males so female behaviour is seen as ‘abnormal’ or ‘DFTN’
Gender bias A03 (biological vs social explanation)
-gender differences are often presented as fixed and enduring when they’re not >Maccoby +Jacklin girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have better spatial ability > hard-wired into brain before birth > Joel useds brain scanning technique but no sex differences in brain structure so original study with popularised because it fitted existing stereotype > should be careful of accepting findings as biological facts when they may be social stereotypes
-but this doesn’t mean psychologists should avoid studying gender
Gender bias A03 (counterpoint to biological vs social explanations)
-doesn’t means psychs should avoids studying gender differences in brain > popular stereotype females better at multitasking may have biological truth > women brain benefit from better connections between right and left hemispheres than men > there may be biological differences but we should be mindful of exaggerating effect they have on behaviour
Gender bias A03 (gender-biased research)
-if challenges gender bias it may not be published
-formanowicz (2018) analysed 1000 articles relating to gender bias published over 8 years
-found research on gender bias published by less prestigious journals
-consequence = fewer scholars become aware of it
-research may not be taken as seriously as other forms of bias
Gender bias A03 (sexism in research)
-women remain unrepresented in uni departments esp science
-although undergraduate intake mainly women in psych, lecturers mainly men (Murphy 1024)
-research more likely to be conducted by men
-may disadvantage ppt who are women and so women may underperform due to expectations like women being irrational
What’s culture bias
tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through ‘lens’ of one’s own culture
culture bias examples
-In 2010, 68% of research participants from hundreds of
journals were from USA.
-96% of the studies were carried out in industrialised
nations.
-80% of research participants were psychology
undergraduates
Universality and bias
-Mainstream psychology is argued to ignore cultures
-In reality, results can only be applied to the groups of people where they were studied.
-If the ‘norm’ for a particular behaviour is judged from one culture then any cultural differences in
behaviour are seen as ‘abnormal’
-Most likely to be studied – Henrich
-WEIRD, westernised, educated, industrialised,
Rich democracies.
ethnocentrism
-Judging other cultures by the standards
and values of ones own culture.
-Normally from a western stand point
seeing other cultures as ‘abnormal’
Limitation of culture bias - classic studies
-most influential psychology studies are culturally biased > eg both Asch and Milgram original study used US, white , middle-class students > replications from different countries produced very different results eg Asch-type exp in collectivist cultures found significantly higher conformity than original study in US (individualist) > understanding of topics like social influence should only be applied to individualist cultures
counterpoint of classic studies
-increased media globalisation argued individualist-collectivist distinction no longer applies > Individualist countries value individuals and independence and collectivist (India) value society and needs of group > Takano found 14/15 studies compared to UIS and Japan found no evidence of individualism or collectivism > culture bias may be less of an issue in more recent psych research
strength of culture bias - cultural psychology
emergence of cultural psych > incorporates work from researchers in other disciplines inc sociology > cultural psychs strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking an emic approach and conducting research from inside culture using local researchers and culturally-based technique> cross cultural results tend to focus on 2 cultures instead larger scale studies > modern psychs are mindful of dangers of cultural bias and are taking steps to avoid it
strength of culture bias - relativism vs universality
cross cultural research may challenge dominant individualist ways of thinking and viewing the world > being able to see some of the knowledge and concepts we take for granted are not hardwired may provide a better understanding of human nature
strength of free will - practical value
-practical value as thinking we have free will improves our mental health> Roberts (2000) looked at adolescents wh0o has strong belief in fatalism were significantly more likely to develop depression. people with external LOC are less likely to be optimistic > free will have positive impact on our mind and behaviour
limitation of free will - research evidence
-brain scans do not support free will > Libet (1983) got ppt to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured brain activity. ppt had to say when they felt conscious will to move >found that unconscious brain activity leading up to conscious decision to move came 1/2 sec before they consciously decided to move >therefore free will is determined by our brain before we are aware of it
strength of determinism - Libet’s findings
Libet’s findings showed that just because the actions comes before conscious awareness to act, it doesn’t mean there was no decision to act just that it took time to reach consciousness > our conscious awareness of an act if simply a ‘read out’ of our unconscious decision making > evidence is not appropriate as a challenge to free will
limitation of determinism > the law
-position of legal system on responsibility . hard determinism stance is that individual choice is not cause of behaviour (it could be genetics / hormones) > it is not consistent with the way in which our legal system work > in court of law, offenders are held responsible for their actions and a defendant exercises their free will in committing a crime > determinism doesn’t work in real world
