L1 - Gender Bias

Question 1

What do some critics argue?

Answer 1

• Psychology has been a male dominated discipline and major theories reflect men.
• The female voice has not been heard of, minimised, marginalised or judged as abnormal

Question 2

What is universality

Answer 2

• Psychology claims to have universality
• Conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone
• People try to discover facts objectively and not influenced by values but this is disputed

Question 3

Define Gender Bias

Answer 3

• When psychological research may offer a view that does not justifiably represent the experience of men or women (usually women)

Question 4

What is Alpha Bias?

Answer 4

• A misrepresentation of behaviours because researchers overestimate the differences between genders
• The differences devalue women
  e. g in relationship formation, women must be selective but men need to impregnate as many women as possible. This message is that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined so when females,es do so it is going against nature and abnormal

Question 5

What is Beta Bias?

Answer 5

• Misrepresentation if behaviour because researchers underestimate gender differences.
• Happens when female participants are not included in a research study but the results are still applied to females
  e. g - the fight or flight response only looked at male animals but a study found that women tend-and-befriend, forming groups

Question 6

What is a consequence of beta bias?

Answer 6

Androcentricism

Question 7

What is androcentrism?

Answer 7

• If understanding of normal behaviour is drawn from research involving all male participants then behaviour that deviates is viewed as inferior or abnormal
• Leads to female behaviour being misunderstood or pathologists

Question 8

Discussion (+)

Answer 8

(+) Male psych are more likely to have their research published and research which funds gender differences is more likely to be published. Psych is guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism
(+) GB research provides justification for denying women opportunity within society. In the 1930, a study said that intellectual activity would shrivel womens ovaries and reduce their chances at conceiving
(+) Many gender differences reported are based on the essentialist perspective: that gender differences are fixed and inevitable and determined by nature, but this is not true. In societies where both genders work and share child care and domestic chores, the psych differences in men and women are less.

Question 9

Discussion (-)

Answer 9

(-) Modern researchers have recognised the effect that their own values and assumptions have on their work. A psychologist included a reflection of how their own gender related experiences affected their reading of events when they looked for the lack of women in accountancy firms
(-) Worell have put forward a number of criteria which should be adhered in order to avoid gender bias in research: Women should be studied within meaningful life contexts, they should genuinely participate not just be the objects of research, the diversity within groups of women should be examined (rather than just comparing men and women) and there should be more collaborative research methods used that collect qualitative data