sexism Flashcards
Gender Bias ( point 1)
psychologists have identified differences between men and women but these may be due to biases in research process. In both biases the outcome is that women are portrayed as inferior
alpha bias
theories assume there are real and enduring differences in the case of gender bias these are real differences between men and women
sigmund freud theory
freuds theory of psychosexual development is an example of alpha bias as he viewed femininity as failed masculinity, and inescapable difference.
In his discussion he claimed ‘we must not allow ourselves to … regard the two sexes as completely equal in position and worth
what else did freud say
That the defiencey of women was according to freud, caused by the absense of a penis. Women are jealous of mens penises (penis envy) and they are morally inferior.
beta bias
theories tend to ignore or minimise differences, in this case between men and women. Such theories tend either to ignore questions about the lives of women, or assume that insights derived from studies of men will apply equally well to women
leading on from beta bias
Androcentric bias
there is an androcentric bias in psychology, theories tend to be written or conducted by men with male samples. Therefore beta biased studies tend to favour male perspective
why is androcentric bias bad
creates androcentric view where male views, opinions and behaviour is seen as standard, with anything deviating from it being seen as inferior.
Men were seen as having superior mental capacity leading to no involvement of women in research
examples of beta bias
Kohlbergs theory of moral reasoning
Beta bias in Kohlbergs study
Theory of moral reasoning
considered how much people think about moral decisions. This theory had androcentric bias for 2 reasons :
1. the dilemmas used to asses moral reasoning were based on male perspective (justice orientation) and the stage theory was based on research with males
2. but theory was applied to both men and women assuming that it had univeral relevance
what did kohlberg find
Kohlberg found that females did not reason at the higher levels that males did.
what did the beta bias in kohlbergs theory show
The beta bias in this theory produced evidence of a difference which may not be real and the end result is that female perspective is devalued - the importance for care in moral judgements (females perspective) is devalued
Carol Gilligan beta bias
argued that women use principle of care rather than justice in their moral judgments, Kohlbergs research devalues the female perspective
Heterosexism ( point 2 )
this is the assumption that the ‘natural’ kind of sexual/romantic relationship between males and females, as opposed to homosexuality (same sex)
Many years mainstream social psychological research tended to concentrate on romantics relationships between heterosexuals
Julia Wood and Steve Duck
challenged mainstream view, in their book entitled understudied relationships where they argued that psychological research actually only focused on small sample of human relationships, ignoring long distance, online, lesbian and gay so on.
Heterosexism - alpha or beta bias
research on homosexual relationships is an example of socially sensitive research- distinguishing hetero and homo relationships as different - may perpetuate stereotypes (an alpha bias) by disregarding one group differences may be devalued (beta bias)
nature or nurture
a further socially sensitive issues 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 gay-ness( because they’re made like that). On other hand it might be seen negatively because then individuals may feel their behaviour is inevitable rather than matter of choice
Historical and social context ( point 3 )
Historically psychology failed to appreciate the richness of sexuality and gender identity.
queer community
research on queer community did not take place. This is because up until recently it was illegal to be homosexual and it was still diagnosable mental disorder until 1970s. This meant little research done on it and heterosexual was seen as standard.
Caroline Smith and Barbara Lloyd - heterosexism
observed mothers playing with an infant who was either presented as a boy (terms of clothing and name) or as a girl. The study showed that mothers selected gender appropriate toys (dolls for girls , cars for boys) and also responded more actively when a ‘boy’ showed increased motor activity. This shows that parents differentially reinforce gender stereotypes from very early age. Young children are exposed to gender stereotypes in media - viacrious reinforcement
what does recent research indicate about heterosexism
such gender stereotypes are still with us, for example Emily Mondschein et al 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.
Corinne Moss Racusin et al - heterosexism
sent job applications out to academics. If the aplication was from jennifer it was percieved as less competent than when labelled ‘john’ - This shows the stereotypes continue to bias the ways we treat men and women
Biological research on heterosexism
Traditionally males have been used in research, even in biological research when it was argued that female hormonal variations would have an effect on behaviour and therefore it was best to use eg. male rather than female rats.
fight or flight - heterosexism
the view that people respond to high anxiety situations by producing an aggressive response (fight) from fleeing
what did Shelley Taylor et al say about fight or flight
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 a beta bias
Feminisit psychology - heterosexism
feminist psychologists argue that were may be real biologically bases ex differences but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to percieved differences than biological ones.
Invisibility of Women in Psychology
There is a glass ceiling effect where women are promoted to high research positions due to the historical view of their inferior mental capacity.
lack of female researchers
The academic gender imbalance is caused by a lack of female researchers, lack of rsearch on topics of interest to women, and male biased editors who only publish research by men or research showing gender differences.
what has changed in role of females
Things are changing as more notable female psychologists are creating notable research. eg
first female psychologist to research differences in male and female mental capacity far no empirical data to suggest any differences. Other notable female psychologists include Hollingworth and her research on the mental effects of mestrual cycle and Kobasa and her research on stress.
