Gender Bias And Culture Bias Flashcards
What is meant by gender bias?
When a persons views are distorted by gender - gender is presented in a biased way, leading to differential treatment of males and females.
Define androcentrism.
Being centred or dominated by males or the male point of view.
Define alpha bias and give examples.
Theories which maximise the difference between males and females. For example Freud’s Oedipus electra complex
Define beta bias and give examples.
Theories which minimise sex differences. For example male samples being generalised to women.
Gender bias can lead to misunderstanding of behaviour. Give 2 examples of how.
For example women more likely to be mentally ill can lead to real life effects like them not being hired as much because they’re ‘vulnerable’. Another example is that men are less successful childcare’s leading to paternal leave being 2 weeks and maternal leave being 6 months
When has gender bias been unchallenged in psychology?
Darwin’s theory of sexual selection suggests women are more selective on mate selection and men are more motivated to exhibit mate retention strategies which legitimises rape and aggression.
What are 2 practical applications of raised awareness of gender bias.
Research found women were less powerful/effective leaders than men. The purpose of this claim was to help researchers develop training programmes to increase female leaders
Journals aimed purely at feminist writings have been published dealing with issues experienced by women like pregnancy.
What is the negative impact on men of gender bias?
Saying that men experience mental illness less leads to less treatment for men, high suicide rates and stereotypical views like ‘man up’ which is damaging.
Define culture bias.
The tendency to judge people in terms of ones own cultural assumptions.
What is meant by ethnocentrism?
Seeing the world only from ones own cultural perspective and believing that this one perspective is both normal and correct.
Give examples of alpha cultural bias.
Mead and Malinowski
Van Ijzendoorn
Give examples of beta cultural bias.
Definitions of abnormality
Diagnosis of MI such as schizophrenia
What is meant by universalism?
When a theory is universal, it can apply to all people irrespective of gender or culture.
What is meant by cultural relativism?
This insists that behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural context is taken into consideration.
Explain how culturally biased research has damaging effects on real life.
Justified racism in many contexts eg westernised IQ tests made Americans believe that African women were educationally subnormal leading them to being forcibly sterilised. US army used IQ test showing African Americans at the bottom of the IQ scale - stereotypes.
