Issues and debates Flashcards
Gender bias
The idea that research and theory in psychology may not equally represent the experience of men and women
Universality
Theories applying to all people regardless of gender or culture
Androcentrism
A male centred view as psychology has been male dominated. It may lead to alpha or beta bias
Alpha bias
Exaggerates the difference between men and women. consequently theories that are alpha biased are fixed and unchanging leads to devaluing one gender
Beta bias
Minimises the differences between men and women. consequently as they seem more similar the needs of the other is ignored leading to the them being abnormal if they don’t meet the standard of the other gender
Research to support Alpha bias
Freud viewed femininity as failed masculinity, therefore exaggerating the difference between men and women. His concept of penis envy and the Oedipus complex suggests women are are morally inferior as they cannot fully develop a superego
Research to support Beta bias
Stress research (fight and flight) mainly focuses on men, they assume it will be the same for women. Taylor challenges this finding the female stress response to be ‘tend and befriend’ rather than ‘fight or flight’.
Examples gender bias
Kholberg developed a theory of moral reasoning basing it on men when women are less morally developed. Carol Gilligan found that women were not less morally developed just different
Bias in the research process
Institutional sexism
standardised procedure
dissemination of research results
Rosenthal ( researchers)
Male researchers are more friendly to female participants, thus male participants do not perform as well.
Feminists argue that lab experiments …
disadvantage females and results in real life situations are more similar to men than in lab studies
Institutional sexism
Men predominate at senior research level. Research agenda follows male concerns female concerns may be marginalised.
Standardised procedure
Women and men might respond differently to research situations. men and women may be treated differently by researchers and could create artificial differences or mask real ones
Dissemination of research results
Publishing bias towards positive results. Research that finds gender differences more likely to get published than that which doesn’t. Exaggerates gender differences
Reverse alpha bias
some argue we should develop theories which show differences between men and women but emphasise the value of women
Research for reverse alpha bias
Cornwell et all
Girls outperform boys on reading tests, while boys score at least as well as girls on maths and science tests
Boys who perform equally as well as girls in those tests are graded less favourably
Avoiding Beta bias
Equal treatment under law has allowed gender access for women to education
Research for to avoid beta bias
Hare-Mustin and Marecek
this draws attention away from special needs of women and differences between men and women
For example equal rights to parental leave ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, child-birth and breastfeeding and subsequently disadvantages women.
Strength of Gender bias
reflexivity
Dambrin and Lambert
Strength of Gender bias
it can be avoided
Worell and Remer
Weakness of Gender bias
sexism in the research process
Nicolson
Weakness of Gender bias
Essentialist argument
Walkerdine
Culture bias
The tendency to judge all people in terms of your own cultural assumptions
Culture bias leads to ethnocentrism
Ethnocentrism
Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social groups
Cultural relativism
The view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which it originates
Imposed Etic
This is when a technique or theory is developed in one culture is used to study the behaviour of people in another culture
For example Ainsworth ‘strange situation’
Over diagnosis of African Caribbean immigrants with mental disorder
Emic
This is when individual cultures are studied and generalisations are only made within that culture
For example DSM-IV, ‘Koro’ an episode of sudden and intense anxiety that the penis will recede into the body and cause death mostly experienced by Chinese men
How to deal with imposed etic
Is by taking an emic approach. however psychology is guilty of using an epic approach to suggest behaviour is universal based on research from an epic approach from a single culture. therefore emic approach is not enough to reduce culture bias.
Cultural relativism
The view that behaviour cannot be judged properly unless seen in the context of its own culture. IF researchers are aware this will help to minimise the effects of ethnocentrism
Eg. auditory hallucinations are listed as a symptom is DSM. however it is not a sign of mental illness in all cultures.
Strength of culture bias
Range of evidence to show CB is a problem
Humanist theory, Maslows hierarchy of needs
strengths
we have a greater understanding of culture bias
This has led to improvements in practice, DSM 5 includes guidance for psychiatrists on how people from ethnic minorities may present symptoms differently.
New research methods are reducing the impact of cultural bias
Weakness of culture bias
Negative consequences
The use of Amry IQ tests
weakness of culture bias
imposed epic is shown through research
Ainsworth’s strange situation
Germans were more avoidantly attached leading to mothers being labelled as cold and rejecting.
