Gender In Psychlogy

Question 1

Universality

Answer 1

• When a theory is applied to all people, irrespective of their gender
• central aim of psychology

Question 2

Gender bias

Answer 2

The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real diffenreces

Question 3

Androcentrism

Answer 3

• Many psychological theories represent a male point of view
• differences between male and female behaviour, male behaviour is considered the norm where as female is atypical

Question 4

Example of androcentrism

Answer 4

Freud
- children’s superego develop when the identify with same sex parent
- girls don’t identify with there mothers as strongly as boys identify with ads
- as a result Freud argues girls have weaker superegos

Question 5

2 types of gender bias

Answer 5

Alpha bias and beta bias

Question 6

Alpha bias

Answer 6

• A tendency for theories to exaggerating the differences between male nd female
• consequences is that these theories devalue one gender in comparison to the other

Question 7

Example of alpha bias

Answer 7

Research about attractiveness - assumed men look for youth where as females look for wealthy and status

Question 8

Beta bias

Answer 8

• Ignoring and minimising diffenreces between male an females
• theories often assume that the finings from males can equally apply to females

Question 9

Exsample of beta bias

Answer 9

Asch
- study of conformity using only male ppts made generalisation about conformity where applied to both males and females

Question 10

How to reduce of gender bias

Answer 10

Take in feminist perspective
- they acknowledge that thee are biological diffeneces between male and females , dont devalue women rather support them
- eagly - proposed women are less effective than leader that men however this knowledge should be used to develop training programmes in order to increase the numbe of female leaders

• However some psychologists suggest male and females are not different from each other
• gender bias due to the research methods used which makes males and females appear different

Over come androcentrism
- develop theories which show differences between males and females but emphases the values of females
- research shows that females are better at learning because they are more flexible, attentive and organised
- research helps reduce stereotypes that male position is better
- valuing women more

Question 11

Problem with gender bias

Answer 11

Gender issues often go unchallenged
- eg Darwin evolutionary theory
- proposes women are choosy when selecting a partner and males test be a aggressive with other males to increase their chances of being chosen by a women
- only be challenged recently, new DNA evidence shows feels can be equally aggressive to increase their chances of finding a partner