Sexism Flashcards
Gender differences or gender bias
Psychologists have identified differences between men and women but these may be due to biases in the research process. Mustin and Maracek (1988) applied their idea of alpha bias and beta bias to gender as well as to culture. In the case of both biases, the outcome is that women are portrayed as inferior.
What is Alpha bias
Alpha-biased theories assume there are real and persistent differences; in the case of gender bias, the differences between men and women are exaggerated.
Example of alpha bias
Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages is an example of alpha bias because he viewed femininity as failed masculinity. In his discussion of female development. He argued that the two sexes should not be considered equal in position and worth. According to Freud, the ‘deficiency’ of women was caused by the absence of a penis (penis envy) and the superego which governs moral behaviour developing from the Oedipus complex which women don’t experience this causes women to be the morally inferior sex.
What is Beta bias?
Beta-biased theories often overlook or minimize differences between men and women, ignoring women’s lives or assuming men’s insights apply equally to women. There is also androcentric bias in psychology, where studies are predominantly conducted by men, leading to beta beta-biased studies favouring the male perspective.
Example of beta bias
Kohlberg’s (1968) theory of moral reasoning considered how people think about moral decisions. This theory had an androcentric bias for two reasons- the dilemmas used to assess moral reasoning were based on a male perspective and the stage theory was based on research with males. The theory was then applied to both men and women assuming that it had universal relevance. Kohlberg then found that females didn’t reason at a higher level than males did. The beta bias in this study produced evidence of a difference which may not be real and the result is that the female perspective is devalued. However, Gilligan (1982) argued that women use the principle of care rather than justice in their moral judgements.
Heterosexism
The assumption is that the ‘natural’ kind of sexual relationship is between males and females, as opposed to homosexuality. For many years mainstream social psychological research tended to concentrate on romantic relationships among heterosexuals. This was challenged by Wood and Duck (1995) in their book entitled Understudied Relationships, where they argued that psychological research only focused on a small sample of human relationships, ignoring long-distance relationships, online relationships, gay relationships and so on.
Heterosexism (alpha or beta bias?)
Research on homosexual relationships is socially sensitive - distinguishing hetero and homosexual relationships as different, may cause stereotypes (alpha bias), or by disregarding the differences one group may be devalued (beta bias).
Heterosexism (nature or nurture?)
Another socially sensitive issue related to gender research. If, for example, a region of the brain was identified as being unique to gay men then it might help people to be more accepting of homosexuality (nature). On the other hand, it might be seen negatively because individuals may feel their behaviour is inevitable rather than a matter of choice (nurture).
Historical and social context
Gender is often seen as a social construct, with psychological research revealing the processes that create it. A study by Smith and Lloyd (1978) found that mothers selectively reinforce gender stereotypes from an early age by selecting gender-appropriate for a child presented as a boy or girl (in terms of name and clothing). This reinforces gender stereotypes in children, who are also exposed to them in the media, a case of vicarious reinforcement. This highlights the importance of understanding and addressing gender stereotypes in early childhood. More research indicates that such gender stereotypes are still with us. Mondschein et al (2000) asked mothers to predict how successful their babies would be at a crawling task. There was no actual gender differences in crawling yet mothers had lower expectations for girls.
Historical and social context (Biological research)
Traditionally males have been used in research, even biological research where it was argued that female hormonal variations would affect behaviour and therefore it was best to use, for example, male rather than female rats. Considering the fight-or-flight response, Taylor et al (2000) have produced evidence that this is not a typical response in females who react to stress with a tend-and-befriend response. So, for a long time, we presumed fight-or-flight was a universal response but this turns out to be an example of beta bias.
Historical and social context (Female psychologists)
Female psychologists argue that socially determined stereotypes contribute more to perceived differences than biological ones, and that revision of ‘facts’ about gender is essential for social change. They believe that these beliefs continue our beliefs about women, and feminist psychology aims to address these imbalances in psychology.
The ‘invisibility’ of women in psychology
People are often mildly surprised when they realise a particular researcher is a woman. The academic practise of using last names only means we are often not aware of the researcher’s gender. Authors are more likely to be male- the American Psychological Association published a list of the 100 most eminent psychologists of the 20th century; the list named only six women. This gender imbalance is strange because most undergraduate psychology students are female. Murphy et al (2014) argued that part of the problem lies with women’s own inferred stereotypes about gender; women also endorse male superiority. Murphy et al recommend that we must all become more aware of our biases.
