gender bias

• Gender bias is when differences between genders are misrepresented, based on stereotypes and not real differences.
• Andocentrism is theories which are male-centred
• Androcentrism can result in people assuming that what is true for men is also true for women, minimising gender differences, despite men and women being anatomically different.
• The result of beta bias in psychological research is that we end up with a view of human nature that is supposed to apply to both genders, but in fact, has a male or andocentric view. For example, Asch’s (1955) conformity studies was performed on a sample of 123 male students and found there was a significant level of NSI, but as this study was conducted with an entirely male sample it has low population validity and should be generalised to the wider population with caution.
• Alpha bias is when a researcher exaggerates the difference between men and women.
• Alpha bias occurs when researchers over-emphasise the differences between men and women
• An example of androcentric alpha bias is Freud. Freud argued there are genuine psychological differences between men and women, and that female traits were abnormal and inferior. Freud's theory suggests young girls suffer from penis envy and femininity is a failed form of masculinity.
• Beta bias is when a researcher minimises or ignores the difference between men and women.
• An example of beta bias is research on fight or flight. Research was often exclusively conducted with male animals. It was assumed that only male samples were needed as the fight-or-flight response would be the same for both sexes. However, this prompted further research and Taylor et al (2002) found that females adopt a tend and befriend response in stressful situations. Women are more likely to protect their offspring and befriend rather than fight or flee. This beta bias meant a real difference was ignored.
• Universality is the aim to develop theories that apply to all people.
• Number of proposed solutions to reduce gender bias. Cornwell et al 2013 showed women are better at learning because they are more attentive, flexible and organised, therefore emphasising positive attributes of women. This challenges gender stereotypes which is important in reducing gender bias and readdressing inequalities.
• Issues of gender bias often unchallenged. Darwin’s theory of sexual selection suggests women are choosy in terms of mate selection. This view has recently been challenged by DNA evidence suggesting women are equally as competitive as men when needed. This highlights the importance of continually challenging earlier gender research to reduce gender bias and ensure women are validly portrayed in contemporary studies.
• Gender bias has resulted in the female experience being ignored in psychology. The lack of female representation in earlier research can not only give rise to the idea that women generally are not as important as men but also means a significant amount of research has low population validity as it can only be applied to the male population. For example, Milgram’s 1963 research into obedience which only used a male sample. This is problematic as a vast amount of research is not universal, and can give a warped view of human nature.
• Observational studies are gender biased if they observe behaviour in one gender that they ignore in the other or define their behavioural categories in an incomplete way which subsequently results in alpha or beta bias.
• Androcentric bias is when research lacks validity because it focuses on male participants.
• Androcentric bias is problematic and researchers will reach invalid conclusions which provide an inaccurate and misleading picture of female behaviour.
• Gynocentrism is theories which are female focused