Issues and debates- gender Flashcards
Gender Bias
This is when a bias is made towards one gender, behaviour is then applied to the other gender. This is mainly caused by using a sample of just one gender in research, and then applying the findings to all people.
Universality
Related to both culture and gender. This refers to when research assumes the findings can be applied to both genders equally, or to all cultures equally.
Androcentrism
This refers to theories which are centred on males or focused on males only. This can only occur if all male samples are used in research and then a theory is generated from this research which is applied to both genders.
Alpha bias
Alpha bias occurs when the differences between men and women are exaggerated.Therefore, stereotypical male and female characteristics may be emphasised.
Beta bias
Beta bias occurs when the differences between men and women are minimised. This often happens when findings obtained from men are applied to women without additional validation (androcentrism).
Evaluation- Kholberg, androcentrism
P- Many significant theories of human behaviour have been built on androcentric research which have then tested women using flawed criteria (i.e., based only on males) and found results that appear to show significant differences in behaviour according to gender.
E- For example, Kohlberg (1969) proposed a stage theory of moral development based on research on boys only. He later tested girls using the stages and found that, on average, women researched a lower level of moral development.
E- This led to alpha-biased conclusions that women have inferior moral understanding.Therefore, androcentric research can at best only apply to half the population, reducing how useful it can be to whole peoples. As a result, androcentric research should only be applied specifically to males and not inappropriately generalised to females.
L- This means that Psychology as a field may have some significant biases in terms of understanding behaviour in relation to gender.
Evaluation- Hare-Mustin and Marecek, beta bias
P-Critical analysis of beta bias has led us to see that whilst equality is important, we should not minimise the differences between men and women if this means disadvantaging one gender.
E- For example, Hare-Mustin and Marecek suggest that arguing for equality between men and women draws attention away from the current power imbalance between men and women and may inadvertently lead to even greater imbalances.
E- E.g., arguing for equal parenting rights / time ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.
L- This means that beta biased approaches that seek to minimise gender differences can be as damaging as alpha biased ones.
Evaluation- Rosenthal, gender bias
P- It is possible that some differences that appear to exist betweenmales and females may stem from gender bias in research methods.
E- For example, Rosenthal (1966) found that male researchers are more pleasant, friendly and encouraging towards female Pt’s than male ones which may skew results.
L- This means researchers must be careful to consider how they are able to carry out research with minimal experimenter bias as possible in order to avoid misinterpreting data
Evaluation- DNA evidence, gender bias
P-Psychologists are beginning to challenge the potential gender bias in many well-established psychological theories.
E- For example, recent DNA evidence suggests that women are equall competitive and aggressive compared to males in situations where they need to be, which contradicts the long-held Darwinian view that males are competitive whereas females are more passive.
L-The suggestion is that Darwin may have been influenced by the prevailing view of women in Victorian times and that many of the theories we assume to be unbiased and scientific may actually be riddled with gender bias.
