Gender bias

• Universality refers to a characteristic/theory which humans pose which can be applied to all people despite differences in experience and upbringing
• Gender bias is when theory/research offers a view that does not justifiably represent the experience or behaviour of men or women.

  Gender bias is an issue for universality
• Alpha bias is when the difference between men and women is shown and may be exaggerated. Either to heighten the value of women or often devalue women
• Beta bias refers to theories that minimise the idea that there are differences between males and females
• research into the fight-or-flight response has shown beta bias. Experiments would be carried out with male animals because they have less variation in hormones than females. It was traditionally assumed that this would not be a problem as the fight or flight response would be the same for both genders.
• Explain why Beta bias may be a problem in the "fight or flight" research

  more recent research by Lee & Harley has challenged the traditional view-providing evidence that females produce a more 'tend and befriend' stress response. Thus the differences in earlier studies had meant the stress response was not fully understood and the real difference between genders were ignored
• Beta bias can lead to androcentrism
• alpha bias: differences are overexaggerated between males and females (often devalues women)
• an example of alpha bias is the Sociobiological Theory of relationship formation: Women who are sexually promiscuous are deemed as abnormal/bad whereas for males it’s normal because it’s in their nature to reproduce many offspring to conserve his genes
• An example of beta bias is the Fight or Flight: earlier research was carried out by a male species and universally applied, however later research found that females tend to act in a ‘tend and befriend’ way to deal with certain situations
• in the past, majority of psychologists and participants were male so theories tended to be a male view of the world yet these were classed as “normal” views which lead to female views being misunderstood/abnormal
• Strength: greater understanding of gender bias means psychologists have put forward solutions of how to reduce the negative effects of gender bias on women such as developing theories to emphasise the importance of women
• Limitation: beta bias may have consequences for women as it is minimising differences; for example equal parental leave may be unfair to women as the women's role is having a baby is biologically more demanding
• What is alpha bias?

  • exaggerates differences between males and females
  • they often devalue women 
• What is androcentrism?


  • a male-centered view of the world
  • male behaviour are judged to be the norm
  • female behaviour are judged and less desirable
• What are way in which psychologists can avoid gender bias in their research?

  • use both male and female participants
  • involve male and female researchers
  • avoid beta and alpha bias
• What is beta bias?

  • research that undermines the differences between males and females
  • occurs when we assume the research findings apply equally to both men and women
• Give one example of beta bias?

  Research into flight or flight
• Why has biological research favoured using male animals rather than females?

  • female behaviour is affected by regular hormonal changes due to ovulation