Gender and Culture

• Androcentrism

  • a male dominates approach to both society in general and psychology
  • nearly all prominent historical psychologists were men and so theories have been from a male perspective/male world view of their era
• Gender bias

  • the differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences
  • Rachel Hare-Mustin and Jeanne Marecek (1988) proposed that there are two ways in which theories are biased (alpha and beta bias) which are forms of androcentrism
• Alpha bias (gender)

  • an assumption that there are real differences between men and women
  • Freud, Lorenz, Lombrosso etc.
  • these theorists devalue the female sex in comparison to males
  • 19th century
  • men are powerful, well educated, regarded as superior to women
  • Freud viewed femininity as failed masculinity
  • Mental illnesses now labelled as anxiety, according to Freud was a female problem he labelled hysteria
• Beta bias(gender)

  • theorists that ignore or minimise gender differences
  • this is in the hope to produce a theory with universality
  • Kohlberg's stage theory meant that a real difference was ignored
• Universality

  • the solution to resolving gender bias in research is the ability recognise differences but not the superiority of one gender over another
• Feminist evaluation

  • there are biological differences but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceived differences
  • Facts must be considered before undertaking any research and we need to revise our facts as these perpetuate beliefs about women
  • feminist psychology aims to reduce the imbalances in theory and research
• Rosenthal (1966)

  • methods used to test, observations may be biased, so males and females appear to be different
  • male researchers are more pleasant, friendly and encouraging to female participants than male participants
  • male participants therefore often appear to do less well in tasks set
• Reverse alpha bias

  • developing theories that show differences between men and women but emphasise the value of women
  • however, this could cause the same problem but the other way around and as a result is not useful
• Positive examples of beta bias (gender)

  • equal treatment of men and women has allowed for equal opportunities in education and occupations/careers
  • Hare-Mustin and Marecek suggests that this is problematic
  • if we treat both sexes as equal, how do value their unique differences
  • e.g. equal parent leave, but this ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, child birth and breastfeeding, disadvantaging women
• Cultural bias

  • making a judgement based on your own cultural assumptions
  • much of psychology represents Western bias/Western world view
  • if this knowledge base is applied to members of other cultures, it will reflect cultural bias
  • we must decide is psychological theory is biased
• Alpha bias (culture)

  • real and enduring differences between cultural groups
  • individualistic culture - individuals less conformist
  • Takano and Osaka (1999) - reviewed 15 studies between US and Japan (individualistic vs collectivist culture) and found very little difference in levels conformity, suggesting that these common views are no longer useful
• Beta bias

  • theories that ignore or minimise cultural differences
  • e.g. IQ test - developed by Western cultures
  • is intelligence viewed in the same way across cultures
  • an individualist might see intelligence as a functional relationship between shared knowledge between individual and society
• Ethnocentrism

  • alpha bias- one's own culture is considered to be different and better, other cultures are therefore devalues (e.g. strange situation with independence or dependence being seen as desirable)
  • beta bias- the approach that their world view is the only view (e.g. IQ test being used all over the world, because it was assumed that these standards were universal)
• Cultural relativism

  • opposed ethnocentrism- all cultures are worthy of respect
  • alpha- the assumption of real differences might lead us to overlook universal differences
  • beta- treating a mental disorder
  • behaviour that is statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another culture, therefore potentially diagnosing the wrong people (e.g. schizophrenia)
• Indigenous psychologies (evaluation)

  • the development of different theories in different countries
  • Afrocentrism - proposes that all black people have their roots in Africa and that psychological theory must be rooted in African-centered values
  • Afro centrists dispute the role in Western values are universal
• Emic-etic distinction (evaluation)

  • indigenous psychologies are emic-etic that emphasises the uniqueness of every culture
  • an etic approach takes an outsider perspective from an objective an scientific point of view
  • an emic approach takes an insider's perspective, explaining in terms of beliefs and values of specific cultures
• Bias in research methods

  • psychological studies can now use studies with sample from different cultures, but historically, this didn't happen
  • Smith and Bond (1999)- surveyed research in one European textbook on social psychology and found that 64% studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world
• Consequences of cultural bias

  • US Army IQ test before WW1
  • European immigrants fell below Americans in term of IQ and African Americans at the bottom of the scale
  • This impacted the attitudes held by senior officers towards certain groups (discrimination)
  • This led to enduring stereotypes concerning ethnic groups