Issues and debates: Gender bias Flashcards
What is gender bias?
The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences.
What is universality?
The aim to develop theories that apply to all people.
What is universality in terms of gender bias?
There’s no difference between males and females, and that behaviour found in one is true for both.
Aims to recognise the differences but not the superiority of one over the other.
What is androcentrism?
Centred or focused on men, often to the neglect or exclusion of women.
What’s gynocentrism?
The focus on females leads to the neglect of males.
What’s alpha bias?
Taylor tend and befriend
A tendency to exaggerate differences between two genders.
e.g., Taylor tend and befriend
What’s beta bias?
femininity is failed masculinity.
Minimising the differences between the two genders
Freud - believed femininity is failed masculinity.
What’s Kohlberg’s moral reasoning research?
focuses on how children develop morality and moral reasoning.
Suggests that moral development occurs in a series of six stages.
Also suggests that moral logic is primarily focused on seeking and maintaining justice.
What’s a zeitgeist?
Undeliberate minimisation of gender differences due to thinking expectations/findings were a reflection of the social and moral attitudes at that specific time.
What are the 6 stages of moral development?
Stage 1: Obedience and punishment.
Stage 2: Self-interest.
Stage 3: Interpersonal accord and conformity.
Stage 4: Authority and maintaining social order.
Stage 5: Social contract.
Stage 6: Universal ethical principles.
AO3 for gender bias
-Laboratory experiment may also be an example of institutionalised sexism within psychology
+Restores the imbalance in psychological theories
+Feminist Psychologists propose how to avoid gender bias
+RWA for gender bias for women
(-AO3) How are lab experiments 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.
(+AO3) How can the imbalance of psychological theories be restored?
Feminist approach which attempts to restore the imbalance in both psychological theories and research.
For example, feminist psychology accepts that there are biological differences between males and females.
Research by Eagly (1978) claims that female are less effective leaders than males.
(+AO3) What do feminist Psychologists propose to avoid gender bias?
Worrell suggests criteria that researchers can follow to avoid Gender Bias.
Women should be studied within meaningful real-life contexts, and genuinely participate in research instead of lab studies.
Diversity in groups of women should be studied, rather than comparisons made between women and men.
Finally, there should be a greater emphasis on collaborative research methods that collect qualitative data. This way of doing research may be preferable, and less Gender-Biased, than laboratory-based research.
(+AO3) RWA
Some psychologists attempt to develop theories that emphasise the importance or value of women.
Cornwell et al. (2013) noted that females are better at learning, as they are more attentive and organised, thus emphasising both the value and the positive attributes of women.
As a result, this type of research helps to reduce or challenge gender stereotypes which is important in reducing gender bias.
