gender bias

• Alpha bias is when a researcher exaggerates the difference between men and women.
• Beta bias is when a researcher minimises or ignores the difference between men and women
• In observational studies, we need to operationalise the behaviour we observe, using behavioural categories
• Beta bias can be seen in

  • Asch's conformity research
  • Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment
  • Milgram's obedience experiment
• • When research focuses on male participants, that research is androcentric
• When research lacks validity because it focuses on male participants, it suffers from androcentric bias
• Freud’s theories suffer from androcentric alpha bias, because they suggest that there are enormous, permanent psychological differences between men and women, and that female traits were abnormal and inferior
• When research focuses on women, it’s called gynocentrism
• When research like Moscovici’s makes invalid conclusions by using mainly female participants but drawing conclusions about everybody, it’s called gynocentric beta bias
• Instead of fight or flight in response to stress, further research has shown females show a tend and befriend response
• Gender bias

  When the assumptions about the differences between genders are mistaken
• Androcentric bias

  When there is a lack of reliability or validity in the research because of a focus on males, behaviour is judged to a male standard
• Androcentrism in experimental psychology has led to psychologists displaying androcentric bias in their research. By having a focus on just men’s behaviours, researchers have a higher likelihood to reach invalid conclusions about the behaviour of women, leaving unhelpful or inaccurate ideas of women being unchallenged.
• Gynocentrism may lead to gynocentric bias if it is assumed that men and women would act the same
• Examples of gynocentric studies

  • Moscovici
  • Ainsworth
• Universality

  Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Gender bias and culture bias threaten the universality of findings in psychology.
• Milgram only used male authority figures