Issues and debates: topic 1 ‘gender and culture in psychology’

Question 1

what is universality?

Answer 1

• refers to any characteristics, traits or behaviours of human beings that can be applied to all, in other words drawing conclusions that can be generalised to everyone regardless of time or culture

Question 2

why is university hard to achieve?

Answer 2

• because psychologists are people with beliefs and values that have been influenced by the social and historical context which they live within, this means it is almost inevitable that bias may occur in the research process

Question 3

what is bias?

Answer 3

• refers to the tendency of view things in a way that is unbalanced or unfair, in other words exaggerating or ignoring differences that exist between people or groups of people

Question 4

what are two forms of bias within psychology?

Answer 4

• gender bias and cultural bias

Question 5

what is gender bias?

Answer 5

• gender bias occurs in psychology whenever differences between males and females are exaggerated or ignored

Question 6

what is androcentrism?

Answer 6

• the tendency of psychological research and theory to focus on men and neglect or exclude women

Question 7

what is alpha bias?

Answer 7

• the tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women to enhance or undervalued members of either sex, or typically under values females

Question 8

topic link for example of alpha bias

Answer 8

• an example of alpha bias in psychology is Freud’s theory of psychosexual development
• Freud argues that drawing the phallic stage, boys experience oedipus complex (castration anxiety) which helps drive their moral development (super ego)
• however females are seen as inferior to males because they are jealous of the penis (penis envy) and as they cannot experience castration anxiety, women therefore cannot undergo the same oedipus complex and are therefore morally inferior to men

Question 9

what is beta bias?

Answer 9

• the tendency to ignore or minimise differences between men and women by either ignoring questions about the lives of women or assuming that what is true for men must also be true for women, which mistakenly minimises gender differences

Question 10

topic link for example of beta bias

Answer 10

• an example of beta bias is photo flight response which was based on early research with male animals (preferred for research because female hormones fluctuate) and was assumed to be a universal response to threat
• However research showed females respond differently with a ‘tend and befriend’ response or fight or flight is inhibited to attention can be shifted to caring for offspring (tending) and forming defensive networks with other females (befriending)

Question 11

strengths of gender bias in psychology

Answer 11

P - a way of tackling androcentrism is through reverse alpha bias
E - this means some researchers have approached research into gender differences by aim to emphasise the value of women by showing instances where women out perform men
E - for example, cornwell found that women are better at learning because they are more attentive, flexible and organised
L - this is positive in the way that it helps to challenge the stereotype a that in any gender differences the male position must be better, and helps to change peoples preconceptions

Question 12

limitations of gender bias in psychology

Answer 12

P - one major problem with gender bias and androcentrism in psychology is that it provides scientific justification to deny women opportunities in society
E - a lack of senior female researchers means that female concerns have been neglected in research questions asked which may lead to inaccurate assumptions about female behaviour that has reinforced negative female stereotypes and validated discrimination at work and in society
E - tavris argues that when men set the standard of normality, it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal
L - this is a problem as gender biased research may have damage effects on the lives and prospects of real women

P - critics have argued that the research methods used to test and observe males and female females may also be gender biased
E - it has been suggested that the preference for laboratory based research disadvantages women because the findings created in controlled settings tells us very little about the experiences of women outside these settings
E - for example, eagly and johnson noted that although lab based studies found men were judged as more effective leaders, studies in real life settings found men and women were judged as more similar in styles of leadership
L - this is a problem as it suggests the methods used in psychology may lead to alpha bias where gender differences are exaggerated by the techniques used

Question 13

what is cultural bias?

Answer 13

• refers to the tendency to judge our people in terms of your own cultural assumptions which leads to cultural differences being distorted and ignored

Question 14

why does cultural bias happen?

Answer 14

• as the vast majority of psychological research is conducted in America, so critics argue that mainstream psychology is generally ignored the role of culture in human behaviour
• psychologists routinely claimed to have discovered findings about human behaviour that our universal, when in reality they may only applied to the particular group of people that were studied

Question 15

what is ethnocentrism?

Answer 15

• refers to the use of our own cultural group as a basis for judgement about other groups, which includes a tendency to view the beliefs, customs and behaviours of our own group as normal and even superior whereas those of other groups are deviant, abnormal or underdeveloped

Question 16

topic link for example of cultural bias

Answer 16

• SZ: afro caribbean males are 8x more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia in UK than white British males, this may be due to cultural norms in the UK making behaviour from these groups seem abnormal, affecting diagnosis
• for example, in India hearing voices is a gift from God, in the UK, it is a symptom of schizophrenia (auditory hallucinations)

Question 17

what is cultural relativism?

Answer 17

• the opposite of ethnocentrism
• this refers to the view that behaviour could not be judged properly unless it is viewed in the context of the culture in which originate, in other words it argues there are no universal norms or standards of behaviour common to all cultures, and instead these norms are standards are determined by and within each particular culture

Question 18

what is an etic approach

Answer 18

• an etic approach works up behaviour from outside of a given culture to describe those behaviours that are universal

Question 19

what is an emic approach

Answer 19

• an emic approach looks at behaviour from within all inside certain cultures and describes behaviours that are specific to that culture

Question 20

why are psychologists suggested they should be more mindful of cultural relativism of their research?

Answer 20

• because the findings may only make sense from the perspective of the culture within which they were discovered

Question 21

strengths of culture bias in psychology

Answer 21

P - researchers have proposed ways of reducing ethnocentrism
E - one way of doing this is by encouraging emic psychologies - the development of different groups of theories in different cultures
E - for example, afrocentrism is a movement which disputes the view that European values are universal, suggesting that psychological theories concerning people of African descent must be African centred and must express African values
L - this is positive as it suggests there is a growing awareness about cultural norms and values that have historically been ignored

P - some argue that aspects of emic and etic approaches can be combined
E - one way of achieving this whilst at the same time of avoiding culture bias, is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting
E - buss did this in his history of whether mate preference is universal by using three local researchers in each of the 37 cultures studied
L - this suggests it may be possible to study the universality of human behaviour and cross cultural research without ignoring the norms and values of the different cultures being studied

Question 22

limitations of culture bias in psychology

Answer 22

P - a problem with cultural bias and ethnocentrism in psychology is that it provides scientific justification to deny people from certain cultural groups opportunities in society
E - one example of the damage done by psychologist through culture bias was the US army IQ test used just before the first world war which showed European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans, with African-Americans being at the bottom of the scale with the lowest mental age
E - the data from these tests had a profound effect on the attitude held by Americans towards certain cultural groups
L - this is a problem as cultural biased research may have damaging effects on the lives and prospects of a range of people in the real world

P - a problem with cultural relativism and the emic approach to studying cultures is that it assumes there is no such thing as a universal behaviour
E - for example, ekman found that basic facial expressions for emotions (such as happiness or disgust) all the same all over the human and animal world
E - equally, some features of human interaction in attachment such as interactional synchronicity appear to be universal
L - this suggests a full understanding of human behaviour requires a study of both universals and variation among individuals and groups