Gender and culture bias

• Alpha bias

  Differences between males and females are exaggerated

  Undervalue one of the sexes

  Differences attributed to differences in biology- genes and hormones
• Beta bias

  Differences between makes and females are ignored or minimised

  When studies include one gender and draw conclusions for wider population
• Androcentric

  Male centred research

  male behaviour is viewed as the norm

  milgram, Zimbardo, Asch etc
• Estrocentric

  Female centred research

  Female behaviour is the norm
• Research designs can mare gender bias more likely

  Research question first proposed- have to be careful to not include any gender stereotypes e.g males and aggression

  Participants selected in a non bias way

  Can unconsciously treat males and females differently

  Should be aware of gender stereotypes can effect expectations about the outcomes
• Not all studies published

  Gender bias can be a result of publication bias

  Often producing alpha bias
• Culture

  Set of customs, social roles, behavioural norms and moral values

  Research often assumes western cultures can be generalised

  Hard to do cross-cultural research because of time and resources
• Etic research

  research from a specific culture which is then applied to find universal laws
• Universality

  Using one set of rules and theories to explain everything
• emic research

  Research based on a specific culture that’s used to understand that culture from within

  Not generalised to other cultures
• Issue of sub-culture bias

  etic/ emic bias for sub-groups within larger groups
• Ethnocentrism

  Our own culture is taken as the norm that we judge other cultures against

  Research based around the once culture it’s based in

  E,g studies done western culture

  Asch, milgram
• Cultural bias- social implications

  Culturally bias studies cause culturally biased theories- implications for societies as may make claims that aren’t true
• Problems with cross cultural research

  Results aren’t always valid e.g even with a translator hard to understand or interpret what participants are doing causing findings to be misinterpreted
• Ways to reduce cultural bias

  Research should recognise cultural relativism- accepting their are no universal standards for behaviour, research needs to take into account culture it is done in

  Samples should be representative of the group you want to generalise to
• implications of gender bias

  may create mis-leading assumptions about female behaviour fail to challenge negative stereotypes and validate discrimination e.g women being denied employment opportunities
• Reflexivity

  own values and assumptions effect nature of research- has been recognised and therefore greater awareness of the role of personal bias
• feminist psychology

  judith sorrel have put forward number of criteria to avoid gender bias- women should be studied with real life contexts and participate in research- diversity in research using both men and women
• challenging assumptions

  use other cultures and then only generalise to these cultures
• operationalise of variables

  e.g cina invasion of -ersonal space is seen as normal whereas west this would be viewed as threatening- issues may affect interactions between the researchers and participants between western and non-western participants