Gender Bias

• What is Bias?

  Psychologists have pre-existing views that influence their theories

  
  

  Issue with bias is that it results in an understanding of human behaviour shaped by researchers views rather than it being grounded in objective data
• Universality

  Idea that certain behaviours can be applied to all humans regardless of gender or culture

  WERID: Majority of pps in research are from

  • Western
  • Educated
  • Industrialised
  • Rich
  • Democratic societies

  Which are not like most of the world population
• What is Gender Bias?

  Happens when researchers views about male and female behaviour affects their theories.  

  ---> Preference towards one gender it can exaggerate or minimise differences between males and females  

  
  

  This leads to misrepresentation of actual male and female behaviour 

  
  

  3 concepts:

  • Gender bias
  • Culture bias
  • Androcentrism
• Alpha Bias

  ---> Exaggerate the differences between male and female

  
  

  Two examples-

  • Evolutionary theory of relationships
  • Freuds psychodynamic theory
• Examples of Alpha Bias

  Evolutionary Theory of Relationships

  Theory-

  • Men are seen as driven to mate with multiple women to increase genetic legacy and reproductive success. They are seen as promiscuous. Uncertain of paternity
  • Women are seen as more selective and choosier and certain of maternity

  Alpha Bias-

  • Exaggerates gender differences in mating behaviour by assuming men are inherently promiscuous and women are naturally choosy and nurturing

  Freud's theory

  Theory-

  • Claimed that during phallic stage girls experience penis envy leading to feelings of inferiority and weaker superego which is failed masculinity

  Alphas Bias-

  • Exaggerates differences between males and females by suggesting that females are more inferior
• Beta Bias

  ---> Ignores or minimises the differences between male and females. Often research is based on male participants and results are applied to both genders

  
  

  Examples-

  • Asch study
  • Fight or Flight response - Taylor
• Beta Bias examples

  Asch's study

  Theory-

  • Investigated conformity with the lines study. Found that group conformed to majority even if they knew they were wrong

  Beta Bias-

  • Asch only used male participants (All American male students) but findings were generalised to all people including females

  Fight or Flight Response

  Theory-

  • Automatic reaction to a perceived threat

  Beta Bias-

  • Ignores gender differences because it was tested on male findings and it was generalised to females without even testing them

  Later research by Taylor showed that females has a tend and befriend response under stress.

  • Females shifted their attention to caring for offspring then built social connections to get support

  Which challenged original view of fight or flight response
• Androcentrism

  ---> Result of beta bias. This is when theories are centred or focused on males meaning they reflect and support a male-centric view of the world.

  • This is because most psychologists who developed theories were male.

  Example-

  • PMS - Premenstrual Syndrome
• Androcentrism Example-

  PMS

  Theory-

  • Seen as a medical condition causing emotional instability in women due to hormonal changes

  Androcentrism-

  • Female behaviour from hormones is pathologized and made into a medical condition, whilst similar male behaviour (e.g. anger) is seen as rational and acceptable
• Implication (Strength) of Gender Bias

  Raised awareness and reflexivity - A way of dealing with bias

  
  

  Researchers are increasingly aware that their own personal values and gender can influence their work from the questions they ask to how they interpret data

  
  

  This has led to more transparent practices in research such as using mixed gender samples and being cautions when generalising findings across genders

  
  

  Therefore, this growing reflexivity has promoted greater transparency and objectivity, helping psychology to move away from male-centric roots it was built on to more inclusive practices
• Implication of Gender Bias

  Led to growth of feminist psychology

  
  

  Feminist psychologists argue that psychology has traditionally used methods that favour male experiences and ignored or misunderstood women's ones.

  
  

  As a solution, feminist research use methods like interviews and observations to explore women's experiences more deeply.

  
  

  This has led to more balanced and meaningful research by challenging the male focused way of understanding human behaviour
• Consequence (Weakness) of Gender Bias

  Reinforces harmful stereotypes

  
  

  Some theories exaggerate differences between men and women E.g.

  • Men are more aggressive or rational, whilst women are more emotional

  These kinds of ideas can be used to justify unequal treatments in jobs, education or mental health where women are viewed as less capable or more unstable than men.

  
  

  This shows that gender bis in research can have real world effects by reinforcing discrimination which makes it harder to achieve gender equality
• Consequence of Gender Bias

  Male bias lowers quality of research

  
  

  Psychology is often androcentric - centred or focused on males

  • Asch - only used men but these results were applied to women too.
  • Later studies found that women might conform more than men

  This male bias lowers validity of theories because it may not fully reflect how women behave or experience the world. It can lead to misrepresentation of female behaviour if it doesn't match the male norm = women seem as abnormal when they're just different

  
  

  Means that gender bias doesn't just create unfairness - it makes psychological research less accurate and reliable for understanding human behaviour as a whole