Issues And Debates: gender and culture

Question 1

Define universality

Answer 1

Underlying characteristics capable of being applied to all humans

Question 2

Define alpha bias

Answer 2

Research that exaggerates differences between sexes and tent to devalue women

Question 3

Give an example of alpha bias

Answer 3

1. Bowlby

2. Sociobiological theory argues men are evolved to have lots of sex but women who do so are going against their nature

Question 4

Define beta bias

Answer 4

This research often only has male particpents but then applies findings to women

Question 5

Give two examples of beta bias

Answer 5

1. Fight or flight only used men as female hormones fluxate more, but assumed a universal response to stress
2. ## New research suggests female biology evolved to inhibit fight or flight to protect young
3. Kohlbergs moral development only used makes, females tendency towards care makes their moral development look lower

Question 6

Describe androcentrism

Answer 6

Such a debate of PSM

Question 7

How was Freud guilty of Alpha bias and adrochentism

Answer 7

1. Girls don’t experience castration anxiety
2. Less identification so lower morals
3. Vanity just a defence mechanism for penis envy and sexual inferiority

Question 8

Implications of gender bias

Answer 8

1. May create misleading assumptions and validate discrimination against women
2. Scientific ‘justification for’
3. Not just methodological issue but damaging implications

Question 9

sexism within research process

Answer 9

1. Less females at senior research level
2. Female concerns not explored
3. Male researchers more likely to get punished
4. Research that finds differed in sex also
5. Institutional sexism

Question 10

What is cultural bias

Answer 10

Ignoring cultural differences and interpret all phenomena though perspective of ones own culture

Question 11

American dominance in psychology research

Answer 11

1. 64% psych research’s American
2. Social psychology textbook, 94% US studies
3. Still claim to have discovered universal facts about human behaviour

Question 12

Describe universality in terms of cultural bias

Answer 12

1. Psychology ignores cultural influence on behaviour
2. Cannot assume findings from western studies are universal
3. Asch and milgram findings very differnt all over the world

Question 13

Describe ethnocentrism

Answer 13

1. Judging behaviour against ones own culture as the norm

2. May lead to discrimination of other cultures

Question 14

Example of Ethnoscentism

Answer 14

1. Strange situation
2. Secure attached is ‘ideal’ and will show moderate distress
3. German mothers seen as cold and rejecting as children’s independence is encouraged

Question 15

Define cultural relativism

Answer 15

Behaviour and norms can only be understood within that cultures social context

Question 16

What’s the difference between etic and emic

Answer 16

Etic: establishes universal laws but from outside the culture studied
Emic: behaviours specific to that given culture

Question 17

Cultural bias in intelligence tests

Answer 17

1. IQ test against the clock
2. Ugandan people characterise intelegnce as slow and careful
3. Raises the validity of western measures of IQ

Question 18

Not all research is culturally relative

Answer 18

Some things are universal: not everything is culturally relieve

1. Ainsworth critiqued
2. But international synchrony is universal
3. Memory tasks
4. Imprintant to bare in mind a full understand takes both universal laws and variation between groups into account

Question 19

Unfamiliarity with research conditions

Answer 19

1. Some cultures are more familiar with general research aims while others are not
2. Demand characteristics when tested with western design

Question 20

Hard to operationalise behavioural categories

Answer 20

1. When measuring say ‘aggression’ the behaviour in one culture may be dif to another
2. Problem with cross cultural variations

Question 21

Good thing about cross cultural variations

Answer 21

1. Challenges western thinking if same results are not found in other cultures
2. Suggests cultural influences
3. Promotes cultural relativism and also gives higher validity if found to be same between cultures