Issues and Debates Flashcards
What is gender bias?
-the tendency to favour one gender over another in psychological research, theory/ practice
Universality
-research applies equally to everyone, regardless of time and culture
-assuming universality causes bias
why does gender bias happen?
-male samples are generalised to female
-male behaviour is seen as standard—} other behaviour from women is seen as deviating from the norm
-biological differences are over emphasised(so social + external factors are underestimated)
What is androcentrism?
-when normal behaviour is judged according to a male standard, so female behaviour is judged as abnormal in comparison
-may lead to women’s behaviour being pathologised(taken as a sign of illness) i.e PMS medicalises women’s emotions in their menstrual cycle whereas male behaviour is seen as a rational response to external pressures according to femenists
Consequences of androcentrism: alpha bias
-attempt to exaggerate the differences between the genders
-enhances/undervalues either sex but historically undervalues women
Examples of alpha bias
i.e Freud’s psychosexual stages= boys can resolve castration anxiety in the phallic stage to develop a strong superego but girls don’t identify as strongly with their mother so they have a weaker superego
-i.e Chodorow suggest that mothers and daughters have a greater connection that sons and mothers which is why women can bond and empathise better
Consequences of androcentrism: beta bias
-attempt to downplay the differences between the genders
-happens even when women have been excluded from the research process
Examples of beta bias
-biological research on the fight or flight response favours males but Taylor et al claimed that the ‘love’ hormone oxytocin is more in women and they produce it in response to stress—} more likely to tend and befriend
-Milgram found that 65% of his male ppts would shock up to 450v but didn’t look at obedience in women
Evaluating gender bias:
institutional sexism
-decisions made around publishing research are in the hands of men—} they predominate at senior researcher level, so research agenda follows male concern
-although psych undergraduates are mainly women, lecturers in depts are more likely to be men(Murphy 2014)
-Researchers may have gendered expectations of women to perform poorly on tasks/be irrational which may disadvantage female ppts(Nicholson 1995)
-bias in the institutional structure= gender bias
Evaluating gender bias:
misleading stereotypes
-essentialist perspective= gender differences are ‘inevitable’ and fixed within nature
-gives scientific evidence to support harmful claims i.e Walkerdine(1990) reported that research in 1930s suggested that intellectual activity i.e going to uni would shrivel a woman’s ovaries and reduce chances of childbirth
-in a domain in which men set the standard of normalcy, Carol Tavris(1993) -‘it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal’
Evaluating gender bias:
Reflexivity
-Researcher’s values + assumptions can have an affect on their work—} must embrace it as a crucial part of their research
-Dambrin & Lambert(2008) studied the lack of women in executive positions in accountancy firms—} reflected on how their gender related experiences influence their reading of events
-may lead to greater awareness of the role of personal biases in shaping research in the future
Evaluating gender bias:
Input of feminist psychologists
-Worrel(1992)= women should be researched in real life contexts and genuinely participate
-diversity within groups of women should be examined rather than comparisons between women & men
-greater emphasis on collaborative research methods that collect qualitative data
What is culture bias?
-interpreting and judging behaviour/characteristics of a culture by holding them to the standards of your own
-ignoring the effects that cultural differences may have on behaviour
(cultural) Universality
-mainstream psych has generally ignored culture as an important influence on behaviour—} wrongly assume universality
-i.e Milgram’s study of obedience was only tested on American ppts but showed different results when Kilman and Mann(1974) replicated in Australia= 16% women and 40% men in comparison to Milgram’s 65%
Culture bias in the psychological field
-Henrich et al(2010) reviewed hundreds of studies in journals and found that 68% of research ppts came from the US and 96% were from industrialised nations
-coined the term WEIRD to for ppts:
Westernised
Educated
Industrialised
Rich
Democracies
-Ammet(2008) found that 80% of research ppts were undergrads studying psychology students
What is culture and subculture?
-a system of beliefs and customs shared by a group of people
Ethnocentrism (+examples)
-the belief in the superiority of one’s own cultural group
-i.e Ainsworth and Bell’s strange situation—} led to misinterpretation of child rearing practices in other countries which were seen to deviate from the “norm” (Takahashi + Japanese babies)
Emic constructs
-applies only in cultural group and focuses on uniqueness + culturally specific phenomena
-interested in immersion(studying from within the culture)
-leads to cultural relativism= behaviour can only be understood in the context of the norms of that culture
Etic constructs
-theoretical idea that is assumed to apply in all cultural groups
-involves applying studies from outside the culture and producing universal claims
-leads to cultural bias if a research assumes that an emic construct is etic
What is imposed etic?
-assumes that culture does not affect results, so research is applicable to all cultures
-results in ethnocentrism(seeing own culture as ‘norm’ and deviation within other cultures as abnormal)
-Van Ijzendoorn rejected Ainsworth’s universal attachment types: “the meaning of behaviour can only be understood with reference to its cultural context”
Evaluating culture bias:
(Implications) reinforce racism + prejudice
-Gould(1981) explained how the first IQ test’s design disadvantaged AAs and supported scientific racism, i.e assuming everyone knows all the American presidents —} led to eugenic social policies after WW1 (‘breeding out’ undesirable characteristics)
-Dove(1968) developed an IQ test suitable for AAs and found that others struggled with the culturally specific content
Evaluating culture bias:
classic studies are not widely applicable
-Asch’s study was conducted in individualist cultures, who are thought to value personal freedom and independence
-but in Smith and Bond’s Asch-like study, collectivist cultures had a significantly higher rate of conformity
HOWEVER in an age of media globalisation, the individualistic-collectivist gap grows smaller
-Takano and Osaka(1999) found that 14/15 studies comparing US and China just assumed individual/collectivist without evidence
Evaluating culture bias:
Reduce it using emic research
-Mead lived with and observed the Samoan community for her study ‘Coming of Age in Samoa’ where she explored the social, sexual and psychological development of samoan teens
-was able to highlight the flexible gender roles and openness towards sexuality
-groundbreaking anthropology work
Evaluating culture bias:
Derived etic
-lots of cultural emic tests undertaken in local areas + by local investigators to build a bigger picture
-i.e Buss et al studies male preferences—} data collected from 37 cultures using local researchers and was able to establish the general trend that women desire a mate with resources and men based on physical attraction
What is free will?
-the notion that humans can make choices and are not determined by biological or external forces
What is determinism?
-the view that an individuals behaviour is shaped or controlled by internal/external forces rather than an individual’s will to do something
-hard determinism suggests that all human behaviour has a cause which should be identified and described
-soft determinism suggests that what determines our behaviour to an extent does not determine our free will to make conscious choices
Different types of determinism
-Biological determinism= the belief that behaviour is caused by biological (genetic, hormonal, evolutionary) influences that we cannot control
-Psychic determinism= the belief that behaviour is caused by unconscious conflicts that we cannot control
-Environmental determinism= the belief that behaviour is caused by features of the environment (such as systems of reward + punishment) that we cannot control
the approaches in free will vs determinism
-Behaviourist approach= environmental determinism—} Skinner described free will as an illusion and argued that all behaviour is the result of conditioning(hard determinism)
-Biological approach= everything psychological is at first biological, so behaviour can be explained by internal forces i.e autonomic nervous system on the stress response
-Psychodynamic approach= psychic determinism—} Freud said the unconscious conflicts, repressed in childhood (hard determinism)
-Humanistic approach= free will—} humans can make personal choices and are not influenced by internal/external forces
Evaluating determinism
scientific evidence
-deterministic approaches helped establish psychology as a science i.e biological approach
-leads to causality(everything has a cause), which allows general laws to be established + phenomena to be predicted
-positive implications= effective real world application in treatments i.e psychoactive drugs in the biological drugs
Evaluating determinism
too simplistic
-oversimplifies human behaviour
-i.e Lorenz suggested that imprinting in earlier life to a maternal figure leads to sexual imprinting
-human behaviour is less rigid and influenced by many factors, i.e cognitive factors and biological impulses
Evaluating determinism
not acknowledged by law
-hard deterministic stance is not consistent with how the law works–} defendant exercised their FREE WILL when committing a crime
-i.e Stephen Mobley(notorious serial killer)’s lawyers used the fact that his family had a criminal past and that he may have had a chemical imbalance to excuse his behaviour
-socially sensitive as victims aren’t given justice/ families are not given peace of mind
Evaluating free will
strong practical value
-thinking that we exercise free will in every day life can improve mental health
-Roberts et al (2000) looked at adolescents who had a strong sense of ‘fatalism’(believing that life is decided by events out of your control), and found that they were at greater risk of developing depression
-people with an internal LOC are more likely to be optimistic
-even if we don’t have complete free will, believing so has a positive effect on the mind
Evaluating free will
not supported by brain scan evidence
-Libet et al(1983) instructed ppts to choose a random moment to flick their wrist while he measured ‘readiness potential’ (activity in their brain)
-ppts had to say when they felt the conscious will to move
-Libet found that the unconscious behaviour activated 1/2 a second before conscious movement
History of nature v nurture
-Rene Descartes= nativist(1590s)–} some aspects of human behaviour are innate and hereditary
-John Locke= empiricist(1630s)–} born as a blank slate at birth(tabula rasa), experience dictates who we are + our behaviour
-Lerner(1988) different levels of the environment, including prenatal factors i.e the physical influences like smoking, on a foetus.
-could also be social conditions, cultural contexts + historical contexts
What is the difference between nature and nurture?
-the nature argument explains that all behaviour is caused by your biology whereas the nurture argument explains that all behaviour is explained by environmental factors
