Gender & Culture bias

• bias is when a psychologists pre-existing beliefs and viewpoints influence their research and data interpretation
• gender bias is when researchers stereotypical views about male and female behaviour affect their theoretical assumptions
• cultural bias is interpreting/judging human behaviour based on cultural norms and experiences - often stems from ethnocentrism
• ethnocentrism is when researcher views their culture as superior or standard against which other cultures are evaluated - leads to misinterpretation
• universality - behaviour applies to all humans. e.g laughing

  If hypothesis tested on non-diverse sample, this claim is an assumption and may not be generalisable to a broader population
• majority of samples in psychological research are WEIRD (Henrich) -Western, Educated, industrialised, rich and democratic
• WEIRD (Henrich) is a sampling bias resulting from significant amount of accepted research by USA and UK based psychologists and often use opportunity samples which are psychology students
• Androcentric - psychologists and research that reflect and support a male-centric view of the world e.g in many psychology courses males referred to more frequently than female psychologists
• Alpha bias assumes significant differences in behaviour of genders - overemphasis or exaggeration of these differences
• Alpha bias - Bowlby's monotropic theory argues role of mother more critical than role of father in infants development. The social norms of 1950s Britain likely shaped Bowlby's ideas, women less likely to have independent careers and parents less likely to share child rearing. Issues as male single parent/ single-gender families may feel inadequate, believe cant provide same level of care as traditional family structures
• Beta bias underestimates/ minimises gender behavioural differences
• Beta bias - often historical research used all male samples and assumed the findings would apply equally to females
• Beta bias - Milgram's original study all 40 participants were male. Also only studied obedience to male authority figures, ignoring possibility people might respond differently to female authority figures. Asch also only used male participants. Male-only samples reflect societal norms at the time and a belief that male subjects would provide more generalisable results
• Beta bias - fight or flight response - idea when presented with a threat to a predator this is the automatic response.
• Beta bias - This is based on male survival strategy and evidence to support this primarily conducted on male humans and animals e.g male rats. Taylor argues tend and befriend response to stressor for females as often responsible for caring for children. Tend involves actions to maximise the survival of both mother and child e.g keep child quiet to avoid detection. Befriend is reducing risk by building social connections that can provide support in emergency situations. This challenges traditional male-centric view of fight/flight response, highlights gender specific survival strategies.
• BB fl/ight - This is based on male survival strategy and evidence to support this primarily conducted on male humans and animals e.g male rats. Taylor argues tend and befriend response to stressor for females as often responsible for caring for children. Tend involves actions to maximise the survival of both mother and child e.g keep child quiet to avoid detection. Befriend is reducing risk by building social connections that can provide support in emergency situations. This challenges traditional male-centric view of fight/flight response, highlights gender specific survival strategies.
• WEIRD participants - Henrich found in major psychology journals 68% of research participants from US, 96% from Western industrialised nations. 67% of US subjects were undergrad psychology students. This means an American university student is 4,000 x more likely to be a participant in a psychology study than a non-Western background.
• When tests developed in and for Western cultures are used in different cultural contexts, cultural bias can influence the diagnosis and understanding of disorders, may lead to inaccuracies in psychological assessment and treatment
• CB - Schizophrenia - In UK and West Indies Schizophrenia bout 1%. People from West Indies living in UK have higher diagnosis rate, 9 times more likely. (Fernando) suggests due to category failure, Western definitions of mental health applied to non-Western populations. e.g hearing voices might be considered normal but in western culture symptom of auditory hallucinations
• CB - Mary Ainsworth SS culture bound as American Context so might not accurately assess child-rearing practices and values in other cultures. Different cultures have unique child-rearing practices/values that could influence infants behaviour; labelling them as insecure (ethnocentrism). Secure attachment most desirable in SS and most common in Western, individualistic societies. 75 % in British sample. example of imposed etic, her US cultural norms should be the standard for rest of world
• cultural relativism - human behaviour can only be properly understood in the cultural context in which it occurs
• To minimise bias when constructing theory, do not assume universal norms or differences across cultures or sexes. Claims of universality or difference should be supported on empirical data
• To challenge culture/ gender bias in psychological theory have greater diversity and equal representation among researchers. e.g more female researchers and support indigenous psychology (researchers native/ very familiar with culture investigated)
• To reduce WEIRD bias use diverse samples. Cross cultural research or comparisons across multiple cultures should be conducted. e.g Van Ijzendoorn's meta-analysis of strange situation, which compared findings across different cultural contexts
• In reporting research findings state theories, findings and conclusions specific to the gender or culture represented in the sample. Helps minimise misinterpretations