Sexism Flashcards
What are the 4 talking points for Sexism?
Gender differences or Gender bias
Heterosexism
Historical and social context
The ‘invisibility’ of Women in Psychology
What are the two types of research has linked to gender differences on gender bias (Sexism)
Alpha and Beta bias
How would Alpha-biased theories link to gender differences or gender bias? (sexism)
Alpha-biased theories assume there are real and enduring differences between men and women (e.g Frueds Psychosexual stages of development)
Why are Frueds Psychosexual stages of development seen as Alpha-biased?
As he views feminity as ‘failed masculinity’, an inescapable difference, he also claimed ‘we must not allow ourselves to…. view the sexes as equal in position and worth’, this ‘deficiency’ of women is caused by ‘penis envy’ and are morally inferior doesnt develop as the ‘oedipus complex’ doesnt occur for women
Why is it significant that Frueds research is Alpha-biased?
As it assumes differences between male and female ‘morality’ off of ‘penis envy’ which is entirely theortical
How would Beta-biased theories link to gender differences or gender bias? (sexism)
They tend to ignore or minimise the differences between men and women, such theories tend to ignore questions about the lives of women, or assume research with women will apply equally to men or are written by men, so favour their perspective (androcentric)
Whats an example of beta-biased research?
Kohlbergs (1968) theory of moral reasoning
Why is Kohlberg’s (1968) theory of moral reasoning seen as Beta-biased?
It had an androcentric bias for 2 reasons, the 1st being that the dilimas were written from a male perspective and all the ppts were males, but were generalised to both men and women, the female perspective is devalued
Why is it significant that Kohlberg’s (1968) theory of moral reasoning seen as Beta-biased?
Its androcetric theory means that the female perpective is devalued
Explain the point of heterosexism (sexism)
Hetrosexism is the assumption that the ‘natural’ kind of sexual relationship is between males and females, opposed to homosexuality, mainstream social psychology research has concentrated on straight relationship
What classic research suggests that gender is social construct? (Historical and Social Context - Sexism)
Research recorded how mothers acted with boys and girls and found that they reinforced gender steryotypes with toys e.g squeaky hammer or dolls and responded more actively when a boy showed increased motor movement - vicarious reinforcement
What modern research suggested we still have gender sterotypes (Historical and Social context - Feminism)
Research (2012) sent out job applications to academics, if the application was from ‘Jenifer’, it was seen as less competent than ‘John’
Why is Biological research often deemed as sexist? (Historical and Social context - Feminism)
Because a large amount of research is done on males and generalised to women and ignores issues such as female hormonal variations
Ex - Taylor et al (2000) - Tend and befriend
How is Taylor et al’s (2000) research a good example of how Biological research can be sexist (Historical and Social context - Feminism)
Taylors researchv the fight or flight response (which was widely accepted as the same for males and females) and found that females tended to adopt a tend and befriend response to threats, so shows BETA bias
What does ‘feminist psychology’ argue about biological differences (Historical and Social context - Feminism)
That whilst there may be real biologically based differences , socially determined sterotypes make a far greater contribution to percieved differences than biological ones, we perpetuate the imbalances in society
Explain what is meant by ‘The invasibility of women in Psychology’ - (Sexism)
The acedemic pratice of using last names means that we are unaware of their gender, which is often male
The Americian Psychological Assocations list of ‘the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century - only 6 where women
How many women were included in ‘The Americian Psychological Assocations list of ‘the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century’? (Sexism)
Only 6
