Gender bias in research

• Key terms

  Universality- can the characteristic/behaviour be applied to all.

  Alpha bias- Psychological research that exaggerates or overestimates the difference between sexes often de-valuing the other.

  Beta bias- Exaggerating the similarity between men & women. Often happens when findings obtained from men and applied to women without additional validation.
• Alpha bias


  e.g Freud's Oedipus complex presents men to have stronger superego and women as failed masculinity.
• Beta bias


  Minimises the difference between sexes. Can occur when female participants are not part of the research process and the behaviour observed in men are wrongly presumed to be universal. e.g Zimbardo's study was never replicated with females.
• Androcentric research


  Taking male thinking/behaviour as normal and regarding females as deviant or inferior. This leads to female behaviour being misunderstood and in some cases pathologised.

  e.g Kohlberg based stages of moral development around male moral reasoning and innapropriate generalisations were made to women (beta bias)
• Implications of gender based bias


  Gender biased research could wrongly give scientific justification to negative stereotypes. This can deny men/women opportunities and affect public policy. E.g Bowlby's theory of monotropy can make women feel guilty for leaving baby during critical period stopping them from returning to work. Gender bias is not a methodological problem but has damaging consequences which affect the prospect of real women.
• Why might gender bias be common in research


  Sexism within the research process is common as too few women are at senior levels of research meaning questions to tackle stereotypes aren't assessed. Although peer review process occurs make researchers more likely to have their research published. psych is guilty of supporting a form of institutionalised sexism that creates bias in theory and research.
• Feminist perspective


  To overcome gender bias we need to take a feminist perspective. Feminist psychology argues that "differences" arise from biological explanations of behaviour, but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceived differences. e.g Gilligan found women favoured a care orientation, whereas men favoured justice orientation in their morality. She showed that men and women are just different, not one better than the other. Therefore feminist psych aims to readress this imbalance in theory+research and emphasises participation of women in research.