Gender bias

• Key terms?

  • Universality: the aim to make theories apply to everyone 
  • Gender bias: Research does not represent both genders’ experience and behaviour 
  • Androcentrism: When behaviour is judged with a male standard 
  • Alpha gender bias: An exaggeration of the differences between women and men’s behaviour
  • Beta gender bias: Minimise difference between both genders
• Evolutionary explanations in sexual behaviour? (Alpha gender bias)

  • There are gender differences in sexual behaviour.
  • Men are much more promiscuous due to their low cost of the offspring, they can have as much offspring as they want.
  • Compared to females, they can only have one offspring every 2 years and undergo lactation.
  • They are better off choosing a high quality male with lots of resources. 
• Freud's psychodynamic theory?

  • It suggests that females are inferior. In the 3rd psychosexual stage, in the phallic stage, girls go through the Electra conflict and boys go through the Oedipius conflict.
  • It suggests that boys overcome this stage and women never overcome their “penis envy” from the phallic stage.
  • Successful completion is important for the superego, which is the moral conscience.
  • Women will always be morally inferior due to this theory.
• Equity theory? (beta gender bias)

  • Relationships depend on the perspective of fairness between partners.
  • It has been found that females are more concerned with marital inequity, leading to marital disruption.
  • One study of 1500 couples found that levels of females’ marital inequity were correlated with divorce rates, however the opposite could not be said for the husbands.
  • This supports the fact that the equity theory is beta gender biased as it is more applicable to men than women.
• Fight or flight response? (alpha gender bias)


  • It was suggested that response to stress was universal. Females are more likely to respond to stress with a friend and befriend hormone.
  • This involves protecting themselves and their young, forming alliances with other women.
  • This would have promoted survival of their offspring.
  • Studies on female rats show release of oxytocin when stressed, which is a response of relaxation and reduction of fear.
  • There are gender differences in the stress response which are ignored. 
• Androcentrism?

  • Normal behaviour is judged according to a male standard, most psychologist + p’s were males so this was seen as the norm.
  • Any behaviour therefore that deviates from the norm set by men can be seen as abnormal and inferior.
  • This can lead to female behaviour seen as a sign of disorder. 
  • It has been argued that premenstrual syndrome trivialises the female experience.
  • Critics claim it is a social construct meant to medicalise a female's emotion and explain through a hormonal explanation.
  • Male anger is rational to external pressures but females are seen due to hormones.
• Negative implications for women?

  • This is because gender-biased research may create misleading assumptions about behaviour and reinforce negative stereotypes.
  • It can be used as providing scientific justification as to deny women opportunities in the workplace or in general society.
  • Women are 2x more likely to be diagnosed with depression as their behaviour is seen as much more abnormal to the male standard.
  • Women are likely to be labelled as mentally ill even though their reactions are normal.
  • Gender bias research is not just a methodological issue but affects the lives of women.
• Negative implications for men?

  • Women diagnosed with depression will receive treatment but males will be less likely to be diagnosed and consequently won't be diagnosed.
  • However, it is clear men do need to be treated if they suffer from symptoms of depression due to suicide being the biggest cause of men under 40.
  • Therefore, alpha biased diagnosis of mental illness can be detrimental to males as well as females.
• Male only researchers?

  • The majority of research is done by males, this has an effect on results
  • Female p’s feel intimidated by male researchers who have the power to label them unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete complex tasks (Nicholson 1995).
  • Other research by Rosenthal (1996) found that male researchers were actually more pleasant, friendly and encouraging to female p’s.
  • As fewer females carry out research, concerns may not be investigated in the first place.
  • The lower number of female psychologists result in a continuing androcentric bias in psychological research. 
• Unchallenged gender bias?

  • Gender bias remains unchallenged in many theories.
  • It has been suggested that the idea of choosy females and competitive males comes from the Victorian times where females were viewed as coy and males engaged in aggression. It has now been recognised that women are just as competitive and aggressive when needed.
  • DNA supports the idea that it is actually a good adaptive strategy for females to mate with more than just one man, which leads to competition and aggression amongst females.
  • This shows that theories should be revised and updated.