culture and gender

• Gender Bias


  The differential treatment and/or representation of males and females based on stereotypes
• Alpha Bias


  Theories or research that exaggerates the difference between males and females
• Beta Bias


  Theories or research that minimises or ignores the differences between males and females
• Androcentrism


  Theories which are centred or focused on males
• Universality


  When a theory is universal it can be applied to all people irrespective of culture or gender
• Gender Bias is the differential treatment or representation of males and females based on stereotypes and not real evidenced differences. This can often be a result of socially constructed gender stereotypes and not real differences. Androcentrism means being centred on or dominated by males or the male viewpoint. This can be a conscious or unconscious bias
• Alpha Bias

  • Freud's Psychodynamic approach argued that boys and girls experience different conflicts in their psychosexual development. Girls do not suffer the same oedipal conflict as boys and therefore they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys identify with their fathers. then argued this had an impact on development arguing that girls as a result are inferior to males and develop a weaker superego emphasising differences between males and females. However, there is no evidence that females possess a weaker super-ego infact researcher into morality and offending behaviour challenges this assumption.
• Rosenthal found that male experimenters are more pleasant towards female participants than male participants and in the same research males performed less well on the tasks involved. Feminists argue lab experiments disadvantage women because of their controlled nature and research has found that although women and men displayed different leadership styles in lab based research, in real settings they were judged more similarly demonstrating the impact of gender bias on the validity of research.
• Culture


  The values, beliefs and patterns of behaviour shared by a group of individuals
• Culture Bias


  The tendency to judge people in terms of one's own cultural assumptions
• Alpha Bias (culture)


  When a theory assumes that cultural groups are profoundly different
• Beta Bias (culture)


  When real cultural differences are ignored or minimised. This can be seen in universal research designs.
• Ethnocentrism


  Seeing the world from one's own cultural perspective and believing this is accurate
• Cultural Relativism


  Insists that behaviour can only be properly understood if the cultural context is taken in consideration
• Alpha bias refers to theories that assume there are differences between cultures. For example, a difference is often made between individualist and collectivist cultures. Perhaps we expect members of individualist cultures to be less conformist because they are less oriented towards group norms. However, Takano & Osaka (1999) reviewed 15 studies that compared the USA and Japan and 14/15 of them did not find this difference.
• Beta biased theories ignore or minimise cultural differences, assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories and methods with any cultural group. For example, IQ tests are developed in the West and contain embedded assumptions about intelligence. But different cultures will vary in their definition of intelligence. A non-Western person may be disadvantaged in an IQ test and then viewed as inferior when they don't perform as well. This same issue could be seen in cross-cultural research if procedures are used in various cultures and may not be valid any more. Such tests are described as an imposed etic.
• Ethnocentrism involves the belief that your own culture is the most important and that all or some aspects of your culture are superior to those of other groups. Individuals will therefore judge other groups in relation to their own, in terms of behaviours and attitudes.
• Psychological disorders are affected greatly by Culture. Anxiety disorders are informed by culture in regards to what situations/objects are likely to cause fear. Some anxiety disorders are therefore specific to cultures such as in Japan there is a syndrome for fearing of upsetting others. In the UK there is no such phobia and this would be classed as a social phobia. This demonstrates how Psychological illness is relative to culture.
• One way of dealing with culture Bias is to identify when it occurs. Smith and Bond (1988) surveyed research on social psychology in a textbook and found that 66% of the research studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. It has also been found in 2010 that 67% of participants in research are American Psychology undergraduates. This suggests that research is severely unrepresentative but also that this can simply be improved through sampling different cultural groups. Therefore by recognising cultural Bias, this issue can be improved.
• Digit span


  The maximum number of digits a person can recall in order
• Spanish digit span


  Increased to 17 years compared to Anglo Saxon population which was until 15
• The word length effect is linked to the difference in digit span between Spanish and Anglo Saxon populations
• Schemas

  The way that we make schemas is universal but schemas are individual to us, different genders and cultures may have different schemas
• Memory processes such as maintenance rehearsal are universal and culture and gender won't affect them
• Standardised procedures

  e.g. ⅔ times needed to recall correctly to hold this as your maximum digit span
• 10/13 had accurate memory 4 months later, shows that people don't use schemas
• Men scored higher on spatial memory than females in autobiographical memory
• Bartlett's war of the ghosts - simplified story, links to confabulation and rationalisation - shows cultural differences
• Reconstructive memory is unfalsifiable as you can't see schemas
• HM supports the MSM as he couldn't form new LTM showing unitary stores
• Classical conditioning

  Uses reflex responses that are present in everyone and work in the same way so not affected by culture or gender
• Social learning theory

  Gender and culture affects the type of behaviour shown by role models and therefore the behaviour learnt
• Operant conditioning

  There will be reinforcement of culturally acceptable behaviour/ gender specific behaviour and punishment when this behaviour isn't shown
• Thin ideals in western cultures so more likely to develop anorexia - westernised media shows this to be positive e.g. with brand deals (vicarious reinforcement)
• Fuller body is deemed most attractive in other non-western cultures e.g. in Africa, links to less social media present
• The basic processes in which we learn by are the same but what we learn is different
• Role models have a better impact if they are the same age or older and have a higher social status
• Girls are more likely to be verbally aggressive whereas males are more likely to be physically aggressive (both with a same sex model)
• Only 3-4% of women develop anorexia when they are all exposed to similar media influence, suggests there must be individual differences or other factors involved
• Bandura - may be testing compliance rather than obedience in imitating the role model as a bobo doll is designed to be hit