Issues And Debates - Gender Bias And Cultural Bias

Question 1

What is gender bias?

Answer 1

When the differences between men and women are misrepresented.

Question 2

What is alpha bias?

Answer 2

A type of gender bias when a researcher exaggerates the difference between men and women.

Question 3

What is beta bias?

Answer 3

A type of gender bias when a researcher minimises the differences between mean and women.

Question 4

What 3 ways does gender bias affects psychological research?

Answer 4

Biased observations - this can occur when studies define their behavioural categories in an incomplete way

Biased conclusions - this can occur when results are interpreted in different ways

Biased design - this can occur when researchers include participants of only one gender, resulting in their sample not generalising to other genders.

Question 5

What is androcentrism?

Answer 5

When theories or studies focus on the male perspective.

Question 6

What is androcentric bias?

Answer 6

When research lacks validity because it focuses on male participants but tries to generalised the findings to other genders.

Question 7

Give three study examples that display androcentric bias

Answer 7

• Asch’s line study
• zimbardo Stanford prison experiment
• Milgram shock experiment

Question 8

What is meant by cultural bias?

Answer 8

When differences between cultures are misrepresented.

Question 9

What is universality?

Answer 9

When a theory of behaviour applies to everyone.

Question 10

What is ethnocentrism?

Answer 10

When someone interprets behaviour based on their cultural perspective, perhaps causing them to see the behaviours of other cultures as abnormal.

Question 11

What is ethnocentric bias?

Answer 11

When research lacks validity because it focuses on one culture, but tries to generalise the findings to other cultures. This can occur when researchers ignore other cultures in their study or study other cultures without understanding their cultural perspective.

Question 12

What are consequences of ethnocentrism in research?

Answer 12

• Ethnocentrism in research can decrease the external validity and external reliability of research as the results may not generalise to other cultures.
• Ethnocentrism in research can lead to other cultures being devalued due to being different, which can lead to harmful stereotypes.

Question 13

What is cultural relativism?

Answer 13

The idea that a person’s behaviour must be understood from their own culture’s perspective.