Gender Bias 16 Marker

• Alpha Bias is when research exaggerates differences between men and women. These differences are perceived as enduring, fixed and inevitable and causes a misunderstanding of behaviour of the sex seen as inferior.
• Alpha Bias is more likely to devalue females compared to males. A consequence of Alpha Bias is that it can lead to misrepresenting female behaviour and thus misunderstanding
• An example of alpha bias is Freud's view of femininity as 'failed masculinity' thus exaggerating the difference between men and women.
• Beta Bias is when research underestimates differences between men and women. This often occurs when female participants are not included in research. Findings from male only samples are assumed to apply to females regardless.
• An example of beta bias can be seen in animal research with male animals. Researchers assume what is true for males would be true for females. This is proven not to be true for example, females can show a tend and befriend response instead of fight or flight.
• Androcentrism is a consequence of beta bias and it happens when our understanding of what counts as being 'normal' behaviour is drawn from research that involves all male samples. Behaviour that deviates from this standard is likely to be judged as 'abnormal' by comparison.
• Androcentrism leads to female behaviour being misunderstood/pathologised, meaning it is taken as a sign of psychological instability or disorder.
• For example, many feminists have objected to the diagnostic category pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) as it medicalises natural female experiences
• An implication of gender bias is that it has far reaching consequences on the everyday life of women. Gender biased research may create misleading assumptions about female behaviour, leading to negative stereotypes and validate discriminatory practices. This may provide scientific justification to deny women opportunity within the workplace and in wider society. This shows that gender bias research is not just a methodological problem but it has damaging consequences which affect the lives of women. Therefore researchers must ensure they avoid gender biased research
• An implication of gender bias is that it has lead to a rise of feminist psychology which proposed that women are not inferior rather just different to men. Kohlberg's theory of moral development may be seen as androcentric as it was developed using men as participants and claimed later that women are less morally developed than men....
• (Feminist psych)...Such gender biased research paves the path for feminist researchers like Gilligan who drew up her own moral development research which concluded that male and female moralities are different. Male morality is more justice oriented and female morality is more care oriented. One is not 'more moral' than the other. As a result of gender bias, we now gain a deeper understanding of female behaviour.
• Our understanding of gender bias has led to specific guidelines and criteria being drawn up to help us avoid such misunderstandings in the future. According to Worrell, women should be studied in real life 'meaningful contexts' in order to gain real understanding rather than seeing them as 'objects of study'. Worrell argued, to understand women, you should study diversity within women....
• (Specific guidelines and criteria)...Instead of comparing them to males, compare women with other women with subtle differences between them like economic status. Research should involve in depth qualitative data, allowing for in-depth analysis not just quantitative data which can lack insight. Therefore gender bias research has lead to practical applications in future research to prevent gender bias.
• Gender bias research methodology makes it appear like there are significant differences between males and females which in reality may not exist. Rosenthal found that male experimenters are more pleasant and encouraging to female participants than to male participants. The result was that males appeared to perform less well on the tasks assigned. ...
• (Research methodolgy exaggerates gender differences)... This is a problem because extraneous variables like differential treatment between males and females make it difficult to actually measure gender differences due to invalid comparison/data. In order to prevent this, methodology needs to be standardised to reduce bias and address the problem of exaggerated gender differences.
• Evaluation points for Gender Bias

  • Implication is far reaching consequences for everyday life of women
  • Implication is that it's lead to a rise in feminist psychology that proposes women aren't inferior to men, just different
  • Our understanding of GB has led to specific guidelines and criteria being drawn up to help us avoid such misunderstandings.
  • GB research methodology makes it appear like there are significant differences between males and females which in reality may not exist