Gender Bias

• Universality= the aim to develop theories that apply to all people.
• Bias= occurs when a theory or research cannot be applied universally.
• Repercussions of bias:

  • Scientifically flawed research
  • Validating discrimination
  • Upholds stereotypical assumptions
  • Distorts our understanding of the world
• • Psychology has a history dominated by men; most psychologists are male & most participants are male.
  • It is therefore highly likely that existing psychological theories are gender biased towards a male point of view, eg it holds a distorted & unrepresentative view of what behaviours may be typical/ atypical for men & women.
• Androcentrism= being centred on or dominated by males, and can be conscious or unconscious.
• Alpha bias= the exaggeration or overestimation of differences between the sexes.
• Beta bias= refers to theories that ignore or minimise sex differences.
• Androcentrism:

  • The process of viewing the world from a male-centred point of view
  • Male biased views are used as the standard or norm to explain psychological experiences of both sexes
  • Androcentrism may lead to Alpha or Beta bias.
  • Kohlberg's theory of male reasoning is an example of androcentrism, as he found women to be less morally developed & therefore inferior to men. The research did not reflect differences in men & women (men care more about justice whereas women care more about hurting people).
• Hare-mustin & Maracek (1988) distinguished between alpha & beta bias (types of gender bias):

  • Alpha bias often emphasises the superiority of males & serves to reinforce gender stereotypes.
  • Beta bias often involves assuming that what is true for one gender is true for the other, eg not bothering to use female PPs because there is no need.
• Alpha bias example:

  • Freud's theory of psychosexual development (1925)
  • Male behaviour was used as a standard for all human behaviour & female behaviour was seen as deviation from the standard- femininity seen as failed masculinity, girls develop "penis envy", girls don't have to fear castration so don't develop the Oedipus complex as boys do, so don't develop morally.
• Beta bias example:

  • The fight or flight response to stress.
  • The fight or flight response was seen as a universal reaction to stressors (as a result of evolution), based on generalisations of studies using males.
  • However, Taylor et al provided evidence that females produce a 'tend and befriend' response at time of stress, which has evolved to ensure the survival of offspring. This had previously been entirely ignored.
• Evaluation of gender bias- strength:

  • There are many positives as a result of recognising & challenging gender bias- feminist psychology has emerged to try & deal with some of the issues.
  • Equal opportunity legislation & feminist psychology have performed the valuable functions of reducing institutionalised gender bias & drawing attention to sources of bias and under-researched areas in psychology like childcare, sexual abuse etc.
  • Indicates that recognising & reducing sources of bias in psychology can have widespread beneficial effects on men & women.
• Evaluation of gender bias- weakness:

  • Psychological research isn't set up to deal with gender bias.
  • Despite the emergence of feminist psychology, not enough change has occurred to reduce bias; still a heavy male dominance in researchers & also in editors of journals who select research for publication- means female viewpoints likely to be under-represented.
  • Evidence that women may behave differently to men when being studied which would produce biased results- Eagly & Johnson found that men & women were judged as more similar in leadership styles in real life settings than lab settings.
  • Indicates that the mere recognition of gender bias is not sufficient to address it (issues= deep rooted & will take time/ effort to create a gender balanced psychological playing field).
• Evaluation of gender bias- :/:

  • One way to tackle long standing alpha bias is to reverse alpha bias- this involves research that demonstrates the differences between men & women, and emphasises the value of women.
  • Eg, Cornwell et al showed that women are better at learning, as they are more attentive, flexible & organised.
  • Such research challenges stereotypes that the male position must be better & changes people's preconceptions.