gender bias

Question 1

what is gender bias?

Answer 1

when gender is presented in a biased way in psychological research or theories. this leads to differential treatments of men and women based on stereotypes

Question 2

what are the 4 differences between boys and girls according to maccoby and jacklin (1974)

Answer 2

• girls have greater verbal ability
• boys have greater visual and spatial abilities
• boys have a greater arithmetic ability, only in adolescence
• girls are less aggressive than boys

Question 3

what is androcentrism?

Answer 3

• being centred on or revolving around the male viewpoint
• this can be conscious or unconscious
• in the past most psychologists were male so their theories produced a male view of the world

Question 4

what is alpha bias?

Answer 4

theories which exaggerate the differences between men and women

Question 5

give an example of alpha bias

Answer 5

in his psychoanalytic theory, freud argued that girls don’t suffer from the same oedipal conflict as boys and instead develop ‘penis envy’

Question 6

what is beta bias?

Answer 6

theories which ignore or minimise sex differences, often assuming that the findings from men can equally apply to women

Question 7

give an example of beta bias

Answer 7

• biological research into the fight or flight response has often been carried out on male animals as they have fewer hormone variations, it was assumed this wouldn’t be an issue as the response would be the same for men and women
• however later research by taylor et al (2000) challenged this and suggested women produce a tend and befriend response
• the beta bias in the earlier research means stress wasn’t fully understood

Question 8

evaluate gender bias
1/6

Answer 8

issues of gender bias often go unchallenged. for example darwins theory of sexual selection, which suggests that women are especially selective in terms of mate choice, has only recently been challenged by dan evidence that suggests women are equally as competitive as men when needed

Question 9

evaluate gender bias
2/6

Answer 9

by developing a greater understanding of gender bias psychologists have put forward multiple solutions. for example some have tried to build theories that emphasise the importance or value of women. cornwell et al (2013) for example noted that women are bette at learning and are more attentive and organised, emphasising the value of women. therefore this style of research helps to reduce negative or harmful stereotypes, which helps to reduce gender bias

Question 10

evaluate gender bias
3/6

Answer 10

taking a feminist approach, which attempts to restore the imbalance in psychological research and theories, can be a way to reduce gender bias. feminist psychology accepts that there are biological differences between men and women, for example eagly (1978) claims that women are less effective leaders than men. this study however was completed to help develop programmed to increase the number of female leads in the real world

Question 11

evaluate gender bias
4/6

Answer 11

worrell (1992) suggested a number of research criteria that are important to ensure research that isn’t biased. for example: using alternative methods of inquiry to explore women’s personal lives, considering women in their natural settings, collaborating with participants to explore relevant variables and studying diverse samples

Question 12

evaluate gender bias
5/6

Answer 12

as society has progressed and women have moved further in academic principles, there have been alterations in research methodology and earlier theories. for example, carol gilligan proposed that women have a different sense of moral understanding than men and created her own stage theory of moral understanding. her approach showed that men and women are different, but that neither kind of moral reasoning is better or more correct

Question 13

evaluate gender bias
6/6

Answer 13

sometimes gender bias can work against men as well as women, due to alpha bias theories consistently heightening the value of women. chodorow (1978) for example viewed women as more relational and caring, and additionally women are more likely to being a diagnosis of and treat for depression. this bias may be the result of women being more likely to suffer from depression, or the diagnosis system being biased towards identifying depression in women. furthermore, the view that men are strong and should ‘pull themself together’ may indicate a limitation with the diagnosis system for different mental disorders