Issues And Debates : Gender And Culture In Psychology

Question 1

Gender bias

Answer 1

The differential treatment and/or representation of males and females, based on stereotypes and not on real differences.

Question 2

Alpha bias

Answer 2

An alpha bias refers to theories that exaggerate the differences between males and females.

Question 3

Beta bias

Answer 3

A beta bias refers to theories that ignore or minimise sex differences. These theories often assume that the findings from studies using males can apply equally to females.

Question 4

Androcentrism

Answer 4

Theories which are centred on, or focused on males.

Question 5

Universality

Answer 5

Believing some behaviours are the same for everyone, no differences in different cultures

Question 6

Examples of Alpha bias

Answer 6

● How were Freud’s theories gender biased?
- Freud’s theories reflected the culture in which he lived, where men were
more powerful and typically more educated.
- Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis viewed femininity as a form of failed masculinity and therefore he exaggerated the differences between men and women – an alpha bias.

Question 7

Examples of beta bias?

Answer 7

● His initial research on obedience used only American men.
● Though he argued his findings were universal and represented the obedience levels of both men and women.

Question 8

Examples of gender bias in research/theories

Answer 8

● Research into mental illness that labels anxiety as a typically ‘female’ symptom – hysteria (Freud)
● Research into moral development (forensic) that suggests women’s morality might be less sophisticated than that of men (Kohlberg)
● Evolutionary theory (relationships)might suggest promiscuity in men is normal and acceptable whilst promiscuity in women is abnormal and unacceptable

Question 9

Evaluation of gender bias?

Answer 9

● Gender bias might result in androcentrism – belief that men’s behaviour represents the norm and therefore that any behaviour typical of women might be judged abnormal.
● Implications for interpretation of the findings and conclusions from psychological research/how the research might be used in society, e.g. creating/reinforcing prejudice and stereotypes (Sutherland in forensics topic examining men’s criminal behaviour)

Question 10

Culture

Answer 10

“Culture can be defined as the values, beliefs and patterns of behaviour shared by a
group of people.”

Question 11

Culture Bias

Answer 11

Culture bias is the tendency to judge people in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions.

Question 12

Ethnocentrism

Answer 12

Ethnocentrism means seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective, and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.

Question 13

“Cultural Relativism”

Answer 13

“Cultural relativism insists that behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural
context is taken into consideration.”

Question 14

Holism

Answer 14

Considering all aspects of experience, including culture

Question 15

What does it mean when a theory is universal?

Answer 15

● When a theory is described as universal, it means that it can apply to all people, irrespective of gender and culture.
● Need to reinforce views that men and women are more similar than they are different – notion of universality
● Psychology attempts to conduct research that is ‘objective’ and ‘value-free.’
● However, psychologists possess beliefs and values that are influenced by the social and historical contexts they live in.
● This may then influence their research, findings and conclusions e.g. because they gather ps from a particular culture/gender etc
● This can undermine the universality of the research (it being applied to all human beings regardless of culture etc).

Question 16

An example of androcentrism?

Answer 16

How was Freud androcentric in his research?
● As girls do not experience castration anxiety in the phallic stage – not under same pressure to identify with same-sex parent.
● Female then forms a weaker superego and so her sense of morality is inferior to a males.
● Femininity is an expression of failed masculinity.
● Vanity – a defence mechanism to make up for sexual inferiority to men.
● Females suffer from hysteria (anxiety)

Question 17

What is feminist psychology?

Answer 17

● aims to redress the imbalances in theory and research.
● agrees that there are real biological sex differences between males and females.
● For example, Eagly (1978) claimed that women may be less effective leaders in comparison to men.
● This allows researchers to develop suitable training programmes that can help redress this gender bias.

Question 18

Another example of gender bias?

Answer 18

● For example, Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy when it comes to mate selection.
● However, these views have recently been challenged and recent DNA evidence suggests that women are equally competitive and aggressive with other women when the need arises.

Question 19

What was the Chitling Test?

Answer 19

• Designed to demonstrate differences in understanding and culture between races, specifically between African Americans and Whites.
• In determining how streetwise someone is, the Chitling Test may have validity, but there have been no studies demonstrating this.
• Face validity but no evidence of predictive validity
• A demonstration of how cultural content on intelligence tests may
lead to culturally biased score results.

Question 20

Examples of cultural bias?

Answer 20

Social influence : For example, when ASCH and MILGRAM’s studies into conformity and obedience are replicated in other parts of the world, very different results are often found (Kilham and Mann, 1974).
- It can be argued therefore that this research only reflects the cultural norms of the place of the original study. Perhaps Americans at the time were just more conformist and obedient compared to people from different cultures.

Question 21

What is Afrocentrism ?

Answer 21

Afrocentrism is a movement which suggests that all black people have their roots in Africa and that theories must be African-centred.

Question 22

What is the problem with Afrocentric research?

Answer 22

• The problem with findings from Afrocentric research is that they are only significant to understanding the behaviour within one culture.
• Another approach (known as ‘emic’) uses indigenous researchers in different cultural settings, for example Buss’s (1989) study of mate preference, which used local researchers in 37 countries to look for universal behaviours.

Question 23

What is Cross-cultural approach

Answer 23

study many different cultures to identify the variations

Question 24

What is Transcultural approach

Answer 24

study many different cultures to identify the similarities

Question 25

Evaluation of Culture Bias in Psychology

Answer 25

• Culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects by, for example, amplifying and validating damaging stereotypes.
• The US Army used an IQ test before WWI which was culturally biased toward the dominant white majority. Unsurprisingly, the test showed that African-Americans were at the bottom of the IQ scale and this had a negative effect on the attitudes of Americans toward this group of people, which highlights the negative impact that culturally biased research can have.