Gender bias

• Universality - Conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone, anywhere, regardless of time or culture
• Gender bias - Alpha bias:

  • Research that exaggerates or overestimates differences between the sexes
  • Differences may heighten the value of women - More likely to devalue females in relation to male counterparts
• Gender bias - Beta bias:

  • Ignores, minimises or underestimates differences between men and women
  • Often happens when female ppts are not involved as part of the process
  • E.g. Fight or flight response - Male animals preferred over female (Fluctuate more)
• Gender bias - Androcentrism:

  • Consequences of beta bias
  • Any behaviour that deviates from standard - Seen as abnormal or inferior
  • Female behaviour is misunderstood
• Evaluation of gender bias - Implications of gender bias:

  • Gender bias research - Creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour - Fail to challenge negative stereotypes + validate discriminatory practices

  Limitation: Not only a methodological problem - May have damaging consequences affecting the live and prospects of real women
• Evaluation of gender bias - Sexism within the research process:

  • Lack of women at senior research level - Female concerns are not reflected in research questions asked
  • Male researchers - more likely to have work published
  • Lab experiments - Female ppts place in an inequitable relationship with usually a male researcher - Have power to wrongly label them

  Limitation: Psychology may be guilty to support a form of a institutional sexism creating bias in theory and research
• Evaluation of gender bias - Rise of feminist psychology:

  • Worrell and Remer: Given a number of criteria to avoid gender bias in research
  • Women should be studied with meaningful real life contexts + genuinely ppt in research rather then being the objects of study
  • Diversity within groups of women should be examined - Rather than comparisons made between women and men

  Limitation: Need to introduce new methods of research to prevent bias towards women - Former research may be invalid