Gender Bais Flashcards
(17 cards)
Is gender bias an issue or a debate
Issue
What is gender bias
Refer to the tendency of treating men and women different in psychological research or theories.
Why does gender bias occur
This is because psychologists - just like everyone else- are influenced by the social and historical context in which they live, which can lead to biased beliefs about gender. This is an issue because it undermines psychology’s claim to universality, which is the idea that research findings in itself should apply to anyone regardless of gender.
What are the 2 types of gender bias
Alpha
Beta
What is alpha bias
The regards to sexism, referring to the assumption that there are real and enduring differences between men and women, however these are often over exaggerated, and often disadvantages one sex
Example of alpha bias
Freud - his psychosexual stages.
For example, he said that we shouldn’t regard the 2 sex’s as equal in position and worth. This is because the absence of a penis and woman have penis envy. He said that woman are inferior to men, because the superego governs the moral behaviour, developed about the Oedipus complex.
Rates of diagnosis - previous research on autism ws manly done on men, it means most of they symtoms where related to the men’s symptoms but autism in women, usually presents different symtoms and this can lead to a misdiagnosis or a late diagnosis, as they dont meet the textbook male symptoms
Whats beta bias
Refers to the tendency to ignore or minimise defences between the sex’s and assume the findings of studies of one sex, will apply equally well to women.
Example of beta bias
Digit span technique was carried out on only girls. -
This tested the capacity of STM. They were given a sequence of numbers and asked them to recall them back in the same order. When recalled correctly, they were given another number, the results were 7+-2, which can be increased by chunks. However these findings were generalised to everyone
Kolhbergs research was carried out on boys-
This is because he interviewed boys and just assumed that girls morals where the same. However a psychologist contradicted this research and said that girls morals are more down to caring, when boys morals are more down to revenge. This is a disadvantage of girls because they are being put as less morally developed.
Outline the invisibility of women in psychology
The consequence of the beta bias and occurs when all behaviour is compared according to a ‘male’ standard often to the neglecting.
What are some examples of research that demonstrates gender stereotypes
Children swapped clothing with the opposite gender- a study was done where baby boys wore girl clothing and baby girls were by clothing. The mothers then played with them and selecte gender ‘stereotyped’ toys, for example, cars for boys and dolls for girls. Showing pedants reinforce gender stereotypes from a young age.
Crawling times - a study was done where mothers had to predict how sucessful tie it child would be at a crawling task. Results showed no actual actual difference, but the mothers had lower expectations for girls.
Job applications - job applications were sent to academies and if they were signed from ‘Jennifer’ they were seen as less commitment then if they were signed from ‘John’. This shows the stereotypes continue to show bias towards men and women
How many of the famous psychologists were female
6/100
In the 1970s women made up around 20% of PhDs in psychology but in 2005, 72% of new PhDs entering psychology where women.
In early psychology, disputed women’s efforts, they earned 9% less compared to men
Why is the gender imbalance for gender stereotypes strange.
Because it’s seen to have more women in the psychology field, but men dominate psychology. And in many studies particpants have been ont men and then the findings have been generalised to women
What did Murphy suggest
He said that woman are also implicit to gender stereotypes about gender because they also endorse male superiority, therefore he said we all need to to become aware of this bias.
How is gender bias showed in the research process
Hypothesis - male psychologists may produce a hypothesis that promotes stereotypical differences between men and women, or show that ‘women and prisoners in their own biology’
Experimental methods - bias towards sampling, many influential studies, such as milgram and asch, only used male particpants and generalised them to women.
Publishing - journalists are more likely to publish significant findings then non-significant findings. As a result the data published is more likely to exaggerate the extent of the gender differences in behaviour.
Dealing with gender bias - how does feminist aim to deal with gender bias and how effective is it
Feminist psychologists have argued that there are real biological based sex differences, but socially determined stereotypes make a greater contribution in comparison to the pecived differences.
Feminist psychologists aim to redress the the imbalances of psychology, and aim to provide women with garter support.
What are examples of alternative research to overcome gender bias
Using alternative methods of inquiry - expanding the boundaries of accepted scientific methodology to explore personal lives of women.
Looking at meaningful context - considering women in their natural setting and how they function.
To conclude, should we avoid studying possible gender differences
No, we need to research differences into gender and we shouldn’t generalise findings from a study completed by primarily one gender to the other, this is because results have shown that gender can impact findings
