issues and debates Flashcards
what is gender bias?
gender bias is the differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real difference.
what is alpha bias?
a tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women, suggesting that there are real and enduring differences between the two sexes.
give an example of alpha bias:
Psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour suggests that criminality occurs due to a deviant superego.
According to Freud, since females do not experience
castration anxiety, they are under less pressure and have less of a need to identify with the moral standards of their same-sex parent, as compared to boys.
This suggests that females, in line with the psychodynamic approach, are less moral than males - an idea which has been refuted by Hoffman et al.
what is androcentrism?
The consequence of beta bias and occurs when all behaviour is compared according to a ‘male’ standard, often to the neglect or exclusion of women.
what is an example of androcentrism?
PMS has been criticised by some as being a social construction, which trivialises female emotion, particularly anger. On the other hand, male anger is seen as a logical response to external pressures (Brescoll and Uhlman).
evaluation advantages of gender bias
+ Feminist psychology = Feminist psychology argues that difference psychology arises from biological explanations of behaviour. The social constructionist approach aims to understand behaviour in terms of social processes. Feminist psychology argues that there are real differences but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceived differences. Androcentrism can be countered by a feminist view and the balance can be readdressed. For example, Eagly (1978) acknowledged that women may be less effective leaders than men but this knowledge should be used to develop suitable training programmes and therefore create a future with more women leaders.
+ Reverse alpha bias describes the development of theories that show a greater emphasis on women = Research by Cornwell et al (2013) showed that women are better at learning because they are more attentive, flexible and organised. Such research challenges the stereotype that in any gender differences the male position must be better and challenges people’s preconceptions.
+ Avoiding a beta bias = Beta bias has allowed women greater access to educational and occupational opportunities. However Hare, Mustin and Marecek pointed out that arguing for equality draws attention away from women’s special needs, for example equal parenting ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and the special needs of women.
disadavantages of bias gender
— Assumptions need to be challenged = Gender bias remains unchallenged in many theories. Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy and males as the ones who compete to be chosen, arguing that women are coy and males as aggressive as they are in competition with other males. However, this view has been challenged as it has been found that women are equally competitive when needed. DNA evidence supports the idea that it is a good adaptive strategy for females to mate with more than one man and this puts females in competition with other females (Vernimmen, 2015)
— Bias in research methods = If theories and studies are gender biased, the research may find differences between genders but it may not be the genders that differ but simply the methods used to test or observe them. For example, Rosenthal (1966) found that male experimenters are more pleasant and encouraging to female participants and subsequently they perform better in tasks/male participants appeared to perform less well. Secondly, fewer women being appointed at senior research positions means that female concerns are less likely to be reflected in the experimental questions.
— The laboratory experiment may also be an example of institutionalised sexism within psychology = Male researchers have the authority to deem women as “unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete complex tasks” (Nicolson, 1995). Eagly and Johnson noted that studies in real settings found women and men were judged as more similar in styles of leadership than in lab settings, hence having higher ecological validity.
what is culture?
culture is the rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people.
what is cultural bias?
The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements.
what is cultural relativism?
The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.
what is an example of cultural relavisitm?
Milgram’s study into obedience was originally conducted using 40 male American participants, but then also replicated using Spanish students
(Miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in Spanish students) and Australian students (where only 16% of female participants continued to the highest voltage setting, as shown by Kilham and Mann).
This suggests that Milgram’s original results were specifically bound to American cultures.
alpha bias in terms of cultural relativism
Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals.
beta bias in terms of cultural relativism
Cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental disorder.
Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another, i.e. schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices but this experience is more common in African cultures, where hearing voices is a sign of spirituality and so individuals are more likely to openly report these experiences to their psychiatrist.
By assuming the same rules universally we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but relative to the culture they may not be.
example of an alpha bias in cross cultural research
For example, Takano and Osaka reviewed 15 studies that compared the US and Japan in terms of collectivist/individualism and found that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in conformity. This suggests that there is less of a collectivist/individualist divide in an increasingly global world.
example of a beta bias in cross cultural research
An example is IQ tests. Psychologists use IQ tests to study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures. However this may not always be the case. Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual whereas in a collectivist culture intelligence is a functional relationship depending on shared information between the individual and society. The result is that non-western people may appear less intelligent. Such tests are described as taking an “imposed etic” approach, where a test is made in one group and then imposed on another.
what is ethnocentrism?
An example of alpha bias and leads to beta bias. Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using the standards and customs of one’s own culture. In its extreme form, ethnocentrism can lead to prejudice and discrimination against ‘lesser’ cultures.
