Issues and Debates : Gender bias

Question 1

What is gender bias?

Answer 1

The differential treatment / representation of males or females based on stereotypes or beliefs rather than real differences.

Question 2

What is universality?

Answer 2

Universal = it means that it can apply to all people.
Includes real differences.

Gender:
Theories that show the similarities and differences between males and females, without devaluing either.

Question 3

What is Androcentrism?

Answer 3

Theories that are centred around MEN

Question 4

What is gynocentrism?

Answer 4

Theories that are centred around WOMEN.

Question 5

What is an Alpha bias?

Answer 5

In the same way that alpha males exaggerate and show off

• Alpha BIAS is when the difference between men & women are exaggerated
• As we have seen, when most of the research is based on men, this becomes an issue

Question 6

Give an example of where alpha bias has been used

Answer 6

A classic example of Alpha Bias is Freud (1905)

Question 7

How does Freuds’ research show alpha bias?

Answer 7

During the Phallic Stage of development, both boys and girls develop desire for their parents.

For boys this leads to castration anxiety, which is resolved when they identify with their fathers…

Due to this unresolved issue, Freud believed young girls suffer from
‘Penis Envy’
* Also, a lack of identification with their fathers is said to leads to a weaker Superego
* Freud’s theory focused predominantly on men, despite many of his patients being female
* Viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity

Question 8

What is another example of Alpha bias?

Answer 8

• Socio-biological theory of relationship formation is an example, suggesting male infidelity as inevitable, and female maternity as inevitable, due to biological needs
• Acting outside of their genetic make-up becomes abnormal behaviour

Question 9

What is beta bias?

Answer 9

Beta Bias ignores or minimizes the difference between the sexes
These theories often assume that the findings from males can apply equally to females
Beta Bias can sometimes have a positive effect, leading to further research…

Question 10

Give an example of Beta Bias in research

Answer 10

A nice (easy to remember) example is with biological psychological research into the Fight-Or-Flight response

• Research has tended to focus on male animals due to hormone levels being easier to monitor
• First assumption is that these responses would be the same in humans, but also that this would affect men and women equally

Question 11

What does beta bias mean for females?

Answer 11

Psychologists have since investigated whether there is a difference between men and women’s response to stress
Taylor et al. (2005) found that women adopt a ‘tend and befriend’ response to stressful situations

In this instance, the Beta Bias, once acknowledged, has led to further research and a positive change in Psychology

Question 12

What is a consequence of Androcentrism?

Answer 12

Leads to female behaviour being misunderstood and pathologized.

• Taken as a psychological instability or disorder.
• Feminist commentators have been objected to the diagnostic category PMS on the grounds it stereotypes and trivialises female experience.

Example Brescoll and Uhlman (2008):
* Claim PMS is a social construct which medicalises female emotion, especially anger, by explaining it in hormonal terms.
* Male anger is often seen as a rational response to external pressures.

Question 13

What is a problem with involving gender bias being involved in psychological research?

Answer 13

Weakness : Gender sterotypes often go unchalleneged

One main limitation of psychological research is that issues of gender bias often go unchallenged

• For example, Darwin’s established theory of sexual selection suggests that women are selective in terms of male selection.
• These views have only recently been challenged by DNA evidence suggesting that women are equally as competitive to men when the need arises.

This highlights the importance of continually challenging earlier gender research and reducing gender bias to ensure that a valid picture of women is portrayed in contemporary studies.

Question 14

What is a another way to reduce gender bias in psychology?

Answer 14

Strength : Possible solution - Empower women

• More contemporary psychologists have looked for ways to reduce gender bias, putting forward a number of solutions.
• For example, 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.

Question 15

What is a way to reduce gender bias in psychological research?

Answer 15

Possible solution : Feminist Psychology

Another way to reduce gender bias is to take a 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, but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceived differences, therefore they need to be consistently readdressed.
• Feminist psychology argues to restore the imbalance in both psychological theories and
  research we could use evidence that women may be inferior.
• Research by Eagly (1978) claims that female are less effective leaders than males.

However, the purpose of Eagly’s claim is to help researchers develop training programmes aimed at reducing the lack of female leaders in the real-world.

Question 16

What are the reasons to avoid Beta bias?

Answer 16

When minimising the difference between men and women, the results can be mixed

• On the positive side, equal treatment under the law has allowed women greater access to educational and occupational opportunities.
• However, Hare-Mustin and Marecek Point out that arguing for equality between men and women draws attention away from women’s special-needs
• In our society men hold the power, so sometimes ‘neutral’ or lack of actions end up benefiting the group with power.
• For example, if we gave equal parental leave to men and women ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, and the special needs of women.

This therefore disadvantages women!

Question 17

Define culture

Answer 17

The norms, values, beliefs, and patterns of behaviour shared by a group of people.

Question 18

Define culture bias

Answer 18

The tendency to ignore cultural differences, and interpret phenomena through the ‘lens’ of your own culture, effectively judging people in terms of one’s own cultural assumptions

Question 19

Define ethnocentrism

Answer 19

This is when researchers see and judge other cultures by the standards and values of their own cultural perspective, presuming that this is what is normal and correct; this leads to a lack of awareness or an ignorance to other valid perspectives of the world. In its extreme form it is the belief in the superiority of one’s own culture which may lead to prejudice and discrimination towards other cultures.

Question 20

Define culture relativism

Answer 20

This is when researchers insist that behaviour can ONLY be correctly interpreted if we study it within its cultural context; this means the norms and values, as well as ethics and moral standards, can only be meaningfully understood within specific social and cultural contexts.

Question 21

How is culture bias implicated in mental health?

Answer 21

Rack (1991) in his book Race, Culture & Mental Health pointed out that in mental health diagnosis, people from an Afro-Caribbean culture are more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness in Britain, often on the basis of behaviour that is normal in their culture…but abnormal in British culture.

Question 22

Define imposed etic

Answer 22

research compares psychological phenomena across cultures to find out what could be universal in human behaviour.

Question 23

Define impose emic

Answer 23

Research studies one culture alone to understand culture-specific behaviour.

Question 24

What is a consequence of culture bias?

Answer 24

• Culturally biased research can have significant real-world effects such as amplifying or validating damaging stereotypes.
• The US Army used an IQ test before WWI which was culturally loaded.
• 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 certain groups of people
• The data has led to enduring stereotypes concerning certain ethnic groups and their IQ, which highlights the negative impact that culturally biased research can have.

Question 25

How do we combat cutural bias?

Answer 25

Recognsing culture bias
We need to recognise cultural bias it when it occurs
Smith & Bond looked at social psychology textbooks in Europe

• 66% of the studies were American
• 32% European
• Only 2% were from the rest of the world.

This suggests that psychological research is severely unrepresentative and can be greatly improved by simply selecting different cultural groups to study.

Question 26

What can we do to counter culture bias in psychology?

Answer 26

Indigenous Psychologies
Afrocentrism is a movement which suggests that because black people have their roots in Africa, theories about them must recognise the African context of behaviours and attitudes.
* The values and culture of Europeans are irrelevant to black people and at worst devalue non-Europeans
* This is an example of an emic approach looking at behaviour.
Theories that have emerged from Afrocentric research (rather than WEIRD countries) are more relevant to the lives and cultures of people not only in Africa, but also to those far removed from their African origins, making their research more generalisable.

Question 27

Does culture bias exist?

Answer 27

Asch used 123 White Middle Class American Males for his research (WEIRD right?)

• Smith and Bond (1993)suggested that collectivist cultures had a much higher rate of conformity than their individualistic counterparts, meaning Ach’s research is culturally bias….
• However, with the rise of globalisation in the media, some critics have argued that this divide no longer applies.
• For example, Takano and Osaka (1999) compared US and Japanese results of Asch-like experiments, and in 14 out of 15 studies there was no evidence of an individualist/collectivist split.
  This suggests that maintaining this distinction is at best simplistic, and at worst lazy, as cultural differences are either more complicated than initially thought, or culturally bias research may be less of an issue for modern psychologists.