issues and debates Flashcards
universality
gender bias
– A characteristic that can be applied to all humans despite differences in experience and upbringing.
alpha bias
gender bias
when differences between the sexes are exaggerated or overestimated. Usually devalues females in relation to males.
beta bias
gender bias
when differences between men and women are ignored, minimised or underestimated. Occurs when female participants are not included in research and findings are generalised to both sexes.
androcentrism
gender bias
Research is carried out from the male perspective. When ‘normal’ behaviour is judged from a male standard, female behaviour is often judged to be ‘abnormal’ or ‘deficient’ by comparison. (See the work of Kohlberg)
essentialism
gender bias
The belief that gender differences are inevitable and fixed. Often politically motivated arguments disguised as biological ‘facts’ (e.g. ‘scientific’ research in the 1930s revealed that intellectual activity would shrivel women’s’ ovaries!)
example of gender bias in psych
In Freudian theory, because a girl doesn’t experience castration anxiety in the phallic stage of psychosexual development, she is not under the same pressure as a boy to form an identification with the same sex parent. This has implications for the development of the female superego. The girl forms a weaker superego than her male counterpart and therefore the sense of morality she acquires is inferior to that of the male.
Freud saw femininity as an expression of failed masculinity. His central concept of penis envy means that women are defined psychologically by the fact they are not men! In addition, he sought to explain female ‘vanity’ as a defence mechanism: women wish to make up for their sexual inferiority to men by focusing on their ‘physical charms’.
gender bias being unchallenged
eval of gender bias
One of the main limitations of psychological research is that issues of gender bias often go unchallenged. For example, Darwin’s established theory of sexual selection suggests that women are selective (choosy) in terms of mate selection. These views have only recently been challenged by DNA evidence suggesting that women are equally as competitive as men when the need arises. This highlights the importance of continually challenging earlier gender research, and reducing gender bias to ensure that a valid picture of women is portrayed in contemporary studies.
What causes gender bias: Sexism in the research process?
eval of gender bias
It has been argued that Psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism that creates bias. This can be argued to be evident in a number of ways. For example, a lack of women within senior research level may mean that female concerns may not be reflected in the research questions asked. Also, males are argued to be more likely to have their work published.
Additional: Gender bias can be created as a result of publication bias. It has been reported that studies that find differences are more likely to be published than those that do not. In terms of gender research this would mean that studies showing a difference between males and females may be more likely to appear in scientific journals than those that do not.
Implications of gender bias
eval of gender bias
There are a number of possible implications as a result of gender bias research. For example, it may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour, fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discriminatory practices. This is important as it emphasises that gender bias in psychology isn’t just a methodological issue, it may have damaging consequences that could affect individuals beyond the research context.
how can you avoid gender bias
There are a number of ways that the problems of androcentrism can be reduced
* Studies should make it clear that the results were based just on male participants
* Studies should include a mix of male and female participants
* Steps should be taken to ensure the work of male and female researchers can get published
It is argued that one possible way to reduce gender bias is to take a feminist approach which attempts to restore the imbalance in both psychological theories and research. For example, feminist psychology Worrell (1992) suggested a number of research criteria that are particularly important to avoid gender bias in research, such as studying women in meaningful real-life context, and argues diversity within groups of women should be studied rather than comparisons made between men and women.
