Gender and Cultural Biases

• What is gender bias? What is androcentrism? What is an example of androcentrism?


  Gender bias: when psychological research favours one gender over another, and occurs as a result of researchers aiming for universality (characteristics that can be applied to anyone)

  
  

  Androcentrism: when normal behaviour is judged according to a male standard and leads to female behaviour being pathologised (diagnosable) when it is not needed. e.g. women are often diagnosed with BPD due to presenting the symptom of experiencing intense emotions, when this could easily explained by hormonal cycles rather than presenting a disorder. The consequences of androcentrism are alpha and beta biases
• What is alpha and beta bias and what are examples of this?


  Alpha bias: the exaggeration of differences between men and women. e.g. Erikson's theory of development states that women suspend their identity at a certain age in order to attract a man whereas men develop their identities before entering a relationship

  
  

  Beta bias: downplaying the differences between men and women e.g. Milgram's study on obedience used samples of only men, finding that 65% of them were obedient to destructive orders. However a sample including females may produce different results due to higher levels of empathy in women
• What are the wider implications of gender bias on society?


  1. Gender differences are often presented as fixed when they are not and have long-lasting impressions on society. Maccoby and Jacklin concluded that girls have superior verbal abilities whereas boys have better spatial abilities. This was popularly accepted due to fitting social stereotypes surrounding girls and boys. However, Joel et al conducted brain scans and found that no such differences exist, showing that we should be wary of accepting research as biological facts when they are better off described as stereotypes.

  
  

  2. Institutional sexism: due to an underrepresentation of women in psychology and lecturers mostly being men, most research is done by men and can disadvantage female participants e.g. Nicolson et al. suggested that male researchers have gendered expectations of women to perform poorly or behave irrationally. Means institutional structures in psychology may lead to gender-biased findings

  
  

  3. Gender bias is an underrepresented topic: Formanowicz found that research on gender bias is funded less and less likely to be published by prestigious journals, leading to the consequence that less scholars are aware of this and apply it to their work. Suggests that gender bias is not taken as seriously as other forms of bias
• What can researchers do to reduce gender bias? What are some arguments regarding gender bias?


  Researchers should be reflexive; recognising the effect of their OWN values and assumptions on the nature of their work. Should aim for objectivity and check for accuracy before publishing research that could be potentially damaging

  
  

  Essentialism: the idea that certain categories (racial, gender) have underlying true natures that cannot be directly observed, making differences inevitable and unchangeable

  
  

  Feminist psychology: insists on exposing and challenging male power in psychology and recognising the need for social change on the behalf of women
• What is culture? What is cultural bias?


  Culture: a system of beliefs, values, attitudes, and practices shared by a group of people that distinguishes one group from another e.g. individualist and collectivist cultures

  
  

  Cultural bias: a tendency to ignore cultural differences and interpret all phenomena through the lens of one's own culture and happens when we wrongly assume universality e.g. Ainsworth's Strange Situation came to conclusions but only studied white middle-class women, yet when conducted in different cultures they produced different results. Happens because research tries to be universal
• What are emic and etic constructs?


  Emic construct: one that applies to only ONE cultural group, focusing on its' uniqueness and researchers will often immerse themselves into the culture. Subjective, inside perspective. Conducted using ethnographic research and highlights cultural relativism: research only being applicable to the culture it was conducted in

  
  

  Etic construct: a theoretical idea that is assumed to apply in all cultural groups. When ETIC constructs are assumed to be EMIC, cultural bias can occur. Objective, outside perspective
• What is imposed etic? What is ethnocentrism?


  Imposed etic: assumes culture does not affect results. Psychology's emphasis on universality makes it culturally biased as it argues that theories are UNIVERSAL despite being conducted using EMIC research

  
  

  Ethnocentrism: when researchers see the views/behaviour of their own culture as normal and superior, and viewing the different views/behaviours in other cultures as abnormal and deviant e.g. Ainsworth's Strange Situation
• What are the positive and negative implications of cultural bias?


  1. Emergence of cultural psychology: study of how people are shaped by their cultural experiences - these psychologists strive to avoid ethnocentric assumptions by taking emic approaches. Suggests modern psychologists are mindful of the consequences of cultural bias and take steps to avoid it

  
  

  2. Has led to ethnic stereotyping: Gould - ethnocentric IQ tests in America lead to African-Americans receiving the lowest scores, this was used to inform racist discourse about 'genetic inferiorities' of particular ethnic groups, arguing that white men had superior genetics due to having higher IQ test scores than black men.
• What was Mead's research?


  Mead's research - immersed herself in the Samoan culture and found that there was a different pattern of male and female behaviour in the several cultures she studied, differing from US gender role expectations. Example of researchers using emic research to reduce cultural bias
• What can we do to reduce cultural bias? What is derived etic?


  Reflexivity - researchers to consider whether they are being biased in their own practice and recognising cultural relativism

  Sharing research across different countries to reduce ethnocentrism

  Ethnography - more research where there is immersion into cultural contexts

  Indigenous psychologies - development of theories relative to the lives and cultures of specific groups e.g. those of African descent have Afrocentrism

  
  

  Derived etic: emic tests undertaken in local areas by local investigators, aiming to create general laws but without cultural bias