Issues and Debates: Gender bias Flashcards
(13 cards)
What are the two types of gender bias?
Alpha
Beta
What is alpha bias?
Refers to theories that exaggerate the differences between men and women.
Give an example of alpha bias:
- In the phallic stage of Freud’s psychosexual stages, both males and females develop a desire for their opposite-gender parent.
- In the boy this creates a very strong castration anxiety, with this being resolved when the boy identifies with his father.
- A girls eventual identification with her mother is weaker than a male’s equivalent, meaning her superego is weaker (as it develops through taking on her mother’s moral perspective).
- Therefore women are inferior to men.
What is beta bias?
Refers to theories that minimise the differences between men and women.
Give an example of beta bias:
- Fight or flight response.
- Research into the fight or flight response has generally favours using male animals because female behaviour is affected by regular hormonal changes by ovulation.
- This simply ignores any differences in the fight or flight response between men and women, and states that men and women respond in the same way to stressful situations.
- (recent research shows that females produce more oxytocin in threatening situations, reducing the fight or flight response and encouraging a ‘tend and befriend’ response- an evolved response for looking after others).
What is androcentrism?
A male-centred view of what is ‘normal’ behaviour, meaning female behaviour is often judged to be ‘abnormal’ in comparison.
(both alpha and beta bias arise from androcentrism)
Give an example of androcentrism:
- Men’s anger is seen as a rational response to external pressures.
- Women’s anger is misunderstood and medicalised, e.g. PMS, by explaining it in hormonal terms.
What is universality?
Any underlying characteristics of ALL humans, despite differences in experiences and upbringing.
Name the 4 evaluation points for gender bias in psychology:
1) Biological vs social explanations (L)
2) Sexism in research (L)
3) Gender-biased research (L)
4) Misleading assumptions (L)
Explain ‘biological vs social explanations (L)’ as an evaluation point for gender bias in psychology:
- A limitation is that gender biases are often seen as fixed and enduring, e.g. alpha bias, when they are not.
- Maccoby and Jacklin presented the findings of several gender studies which concluded that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have a better spacial ability.
- Suggested that these differences are ‘hardwired’ into the brain before birth- these findings were widely reported and seen as facts.
- However Joel used brain scanning and found no such sex differences in brain structure or processing.
- It is possible that data from Maccoby and Jacklin was popularised because it labelled girls as ‘speakers’ and boys as ‘doers’, fitting existing gender-stereotypes.
- Suggests that we should be cautious when accepting research findings as biological facts when they may be better explained as social stereotypes.
Explain ‘sexism in research (L)’ as an evaluation point for gender bias in psychology:
- A limitation is that gender bias promotes sexism in the research process.
- Women remain underrepresented in university departments, particularly in science. Although psychology’s undergraduate intake is mainly women, lecturers in psychology departments are more likely to be men.
- This means more research is likely to be conducted by men and this may disadvantage participants who are female.
- E.g. a male researcher may expect women to be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks (Nicolson 1995), and such expectations are likely to mean that women underperform in research studies.
- Suggests that the institutional structures and methods of psychology may produce findings that are gender biased.
Explain ‘gender-biased research (L)’ as an evaluation point for gender bias in psychology:
- A limitation is that research challenging gender biases may not be published.
- Formanowicz completed a meta-analysis of over 1000 articles relating to gender bias published over 8 years.
- Found that research into gender bias is funded less often and published by less prestigious journals- meaning that fewer researchers become aware of gender bias and identify it in their work.
- The researchers argued that this still held true when gender bias was compared with other forms of bias, such as ethnic bias, and when other factors were controlled, such as the gender of the author.
- Suggests that gender bias in psychological research may not be taken as seriously as other forms of bias.
Explain ‘misleading assumptions (L)’ as an evaluation point for gender bias in psychology:
- A limitation is that gender-biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour and fail to challenge harmful stereotypes.
- In any domain where men set the ‘normal’ behaviour for women, it is argued that ‘it is normal for women to feel abnormal’- gender bias in research is not just a methodological problem but may have damaging consequences which affect the lives of real women.
-E.g. premenstrual syndrome- feminists argue that this diagnosis medicalises female emotions, such as anger, in order to delegitimise them. - Suggests that gender-bias is a wider issue than purely psychological research as it affects the everyday experiences of women.
