Gender bias

• Gender bias 


  Tendency to favour one gender over another
• what 4 differences between males and females did Maccoby & Jacklin suggest?

  • girls have greater verbal ability
  • boy have better visual and spatial ability
  • girls are less aggressive
  • boys have greater mathematical ability
• universality

  some behaviours occur in every type of person such as reflexes
• bias

  when our view is inaccurate or misleading which has implications for how we do research and what we do with the findings
• 2 types of gender bias

  • alpha bias
  • beta bias
• androcentrism

  being centred on or dominated by males or the male viewpoint
• alpha bias

  theories that exaggerate differences between males and females - differences are often presented as fixed and inevitable
• how can alpha bias work against men?

  women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression so will receive more support and treatment
• evidence for alpha bias

  • evolutionary explanation of relationships - men and women have different values in relationships
  • bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation - used to promote women staying at home to look after children
• beta bias

  research that ignores or minimises gender differences
• Rosenthal (beta bias)

  male experimenters behave differently to female participants - they are more friendly and encouraging
• evidence for beta bias

  • Milgram - his study was only done on men but he assumed it would also apply to women
  • biological approach - research into fight or flight assumed that men and women respond to threat in the same way
• feminist psychology

  attempts to restore the balance in research
• 2 ways feminist psychology tries to restore the balance of research

  • research that shows positive traits of women - Cornwell found women are more organised and attentive
  • research where women perform worse to see how they can improve - Eagly developed training programmes to improve leadership skills of females
• problem with feminist psychology

  giving men and women equal rights in childcare ignores the physical and emotional effects of pregnancy for women