Lesson 1 Gender Bias Flashcards
What is gender bias in psychology
Historically psychology has been primarily been a male dominated discipline and critics argue that many of its major theories reflect this. Some argue that the female voice has not been heard at all, it’s been minimised, marginalised, or judged as abnormal
Are there any ‘real’ gender differences
Maccoby and Jacklin found that there are only 4 differences between men and women
-girls have greater verbal ability
-boys have greater visual and spatial abilities
-boys have greater mathematical abilities and a younger age
-girls are less aggressive than boys.
What is universality
Psychology claims to have universality, which means that the conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone, regardless of time, culture or gender. Psychologists claim that they discover facts about human beings, which are objective and not influenced by their own values, however many dispute this claim
What is gender bias?
When psychological research may offer a view that does not represent the experience of men or women
What is alpha bias
When theories exaggerate the differences between males and females. These often devalue women in relation to men. For example Freud said that girls are not as moral than boys due to the fact that they do not experience the Oedipus complex as they do not identify with their mothers and much as boys do with their fathers. As well, as the evolutionary approach is alpha biased, saying that the development of humans as a species is why men are more dominant, and why women are more invested in their offspring. However it’s argued that evolution shouldn’t be considered to justify any gender differences
What is beta bias
When theories ignore sex differences. Theories often imply that findings from males and be applied females. An example being the fight or flight response. Early research was focused on male animals and it was assumed that there would be a universal response to a threatening situation (fight or flight). However Taylor et al has found that women instead produce a tend and befriend response, forming groups, rather than fighting or running
What is androcentrism
Means being centred on the male viewpoint. Beta and alpha bias are both a consequence of androcentrism. We have been presented in a male dominated version of the world and if all the research that shows what normal behaviour should be is being drawn only from research including men, then behaviour that deviates from this standard is likely to be viewed as abnormal or inferior. So female behaviour could be misunderstood and even worse, pathologised.
Discussing gender bias 1
Male researchers within psychology are still more likely to have their research published than females, and research which finds gender differences is more likely to be published than research that finds no such difference. Psychology may be guilty of supporting a form of institutional sexism.
Gender biased research also may provide scientific justification for denying women opportunities within society. In 1930s ‘scientific’ research revealed that intellectual activity (such as going uni) would shrivel woman’s ovaries and reduce chance of conceiving
Discussing gender bias 2
Many of the gender differences reported over the years are based on the essentialist perspective: that gender differences are fixated and inevitable and determined by nature. This is not necessarily the case, in societies where men and women both go out to work and share child care and domestic chores, the psychological differences between men and women are far less
Gender bias can also work against males as sometimes alpha bias theories heightens the value of women, for example Chodorow viewed women as more relational and caring. And another example women are more likely to de diagnosed with depression and given treatment than males. This could be due to the expectation that males have to ‘pull themselves together’ and that they aren’t actually depressed
Discussion point 3
Worell has put forward a number of criteria that should be followed in order to avoid gender bias in research:
-women should be studied within meaningful life contexts
-women should genuinely participate in psychological research
-diversity within groups of women should be examined
-there should be more collaborative research methods used that collect qualitative data
