gender bias

• gender bias is the differential treatment of males and females based on stereotypes
• universality is the idea that all people are the same and all people have the same needs
• alpha bias is where research focuses on or exaggerates on differences between men and women
• beta bias is where research ignores or minimises the differences between men and women
• androcentrism is when theories are centred or focused on males

  for example milgram, asch, schizophrenia diagnosis

  a result of beta bias
• gynocentrism is when theories are centred or focused on females

  for example ainsworth
• an example of alpha bias is freud, who argued that women are inferior as young girls suffer from penis envy, and he viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity
• an example of beta bias is with the fight or flight response as it is assumed that men and women respond the same way
• taylor (2000) - females adopt a ‘tend and befriend’ response in stressful situations
• an example of androcentrism is asch’s research, which was only conducted on males and assumed that conformity rates would apply the same to women - beta bias
• fight or flight research is androcentric as it was based exclusively on male animals, but it is applied to both men and women