Gender Bias

• Universalism - the belief that there are 'universals', underlying human characteristics/norms that everyone has regardless of their environment
• Essentialism - the belief that all members of a group (eg class, race, gender) of people are associated with a distinct and stable 'essence'

  Things have attributes that are essential for their identity and can be used to predict characteristics of a person
• Issues with universality - psychology claims to be universal and gender bias threaten this

  we don't want to eradicate gender differences, but recognise these
• Alpha bias 


  Psychological theories that exaggerate or overestimate differences between the sexes, often presented as fixed and inevitable

  These may enhance or undervalue either sex, but typically undervalue females
• Beta Bias


  Theories that ignore or minimise differences between the sexes, this often happens when women are not in the same sample of research, it is then assumed the findings apply to both
• Androcentrism 


  A consequence of beta bias

  Male centred view of the world where male behaviour and masculine traits are judged to be the norm and more desirable

  Female behaviour and feminine traits are judged to be abnormal and less desirable

  Shown in all male samples and applying findings to females (Asch, Zimbardo, Milgrim)
• Negative consequence of Alpha Bias - Exaggerates women's moods

  Research supports women being grumpy during PMS and women's hormones are always looked down on
• Negative consequence of Alpha Bias - Undervalues Women

  Men are seen as more competitive and deserving in the workplace
• Negative consequences of Alpha bias - The diagnosis for mental illness can be different for men and women

  Men are seen as stronger and less emotional than women, women may be taken less seriously as they're shown as over emotional
• Positive consequences of Alpha Bias - helps identify gender differences in mental illness

  Helps to treat mental illness differently for men and women
• Negative consequences of Beta Bias - Shared parental leave

  Difference in roles in birth and caregiving of a child
• Negative consequences of Beta bias - male samples generalise to females

  Therefore researchers ignore differences
• Positive consequences of Beta Bias - Women treated fairly in the workplace

  Minimising the difference between genders
• How can researchers avoid gender bias

  • Use both males and female participants
  • Involve both males and females researchers
  • Avoid alpha and beta bias
  • Sensitivity to norms/standards when designing research and reporting finds
  • Understand own gender bias when carrying out research
  • Don't extrapolate findings from research with only one gender, to the other
• Feminist Psychology

  Counters androcentrism through taking a feminist perspective

  Gilligan argues that different psychology arises from biological explanations of behaviour

  Feminist psychology agrees with this, but suggests that socially determined stereotypes make a greater difference to perceived differences

  However, this leads to reverse alpha bias, as women are favoured over men
• Reflexivity

  The ability to reflect on ones own potential bias and subjectivity, and the effect that these might have on ones own research

  Many researchers no discuss their own assumptions in their work, rather than seeing it as a problem, they are embracing it as a crucial part of psychology

  Despite psychologists' best intentions, being aware that they are likely to be biased doesn't remove bias - much of its unconscious

  Only a partial solution to gender bias