Gender bias

• What is Androcentrism?


  When a study is centred or focuses on men, often to the neglect or exclusion of women
• What is Alpha bias?


  This is when the differences between men and women are exaggerated.
• How does Freud's theory of psychoanalysis provide evidence for alpha bias?


  In his theory he viewed femininity as failed masculinity and his results exaggerated the difference between men and women.
• Why did Freud's theory of psychoanalysis suffer from alpha bias?

  During that time in the 19th century men were viewed as superior and more educated.
• What did Josselson (1998) say about Freud's theory?


  He explained that in Freud's theory, women are viewed as inferior due to their penis envy and because they cannot undergo the same Oedipus conflict that men do making them inferior as they have weaker identification with their mothers.
• What is Beta bias?


  This is when the differences between men and women are minimised/ignored.
• How does the fight or flight response provide evidence for beta bias?


  Biological research on this response was conducted with only male animals as females have different hormone levels making research difficult so they assumed make only samples could be applied to women.
• How did Shelly Taylor (2000) challenge the fight or flight response?


  She provided evidence that females use a tend and befriend response to survive during stressful times. This showed that the female response to stress was not fully understood because it was ignored.
• How does universality aim to prevent gender bias?

  Universality is the aim to develop theories that apply to all people, which may include real differences but not the superiority of one gender over another.
• How does feminist psychology help to challenge gender bias?


  It involves re-examining the facts about gender which will help to change the view of women as deficient men
• Why is it important to re-examine the facts about gender?

  It helps to create a psychology for women rather than of women which would be more effective.
• And how may feminist psychology counter gender bias?

  It will help produce results that are accurate for women as well and this will give research results more validity.
• Why may there bias in research methods?


  The methods used to test or observe different genders are biased which may result in males appearing different to women
• How does research from Rosenthal (1966) provide evidence for bias in research methods?


  Rosenthal (1996) found that male experiments acted more pleasantly to female participants than male participants resulting in men doing worse on assigned tasks
• Why is it a problem that there may be bias in research methods?

  It affects the validity of the experiment as it suggests that the results are not true due to the way in which the study was conducted.
• What is reverse alpha bias?

  This involves developing theories that show the differences between men and women but emphasise where women are better in areas such as being more attentive.
• Why is it important to emphasise the things that women are better at?


  This would help to change the stereotype that men are superior and may prevent any future gender bias.
• And how does reverse alpha bias help counter gender bias in research?

  This will help to create more valid results and reduce the chances of gender bias occurring again as stereotypes are being changed
• However how do Hare-Mustin and Maracek show that avoiding a beta bias may benefit women more?

  They explained that when one group holds the most power, neutral actions benefits them the most.
• What example backs up Hare-Mustin and Maracek claims?


  Equal parental leave ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding and the special needs of women therefore disadvantaging them.
• And how does avoiding a beta bias link with gender bias?

  It may only encourage gender bias as avoiding a beta bias only benefits the group in power and in this case in psychology research, men are often favoured.
• Why may assumptions needs to be examined?


  Some theories that are still used today suffer from gender bias and have remained unchallenged?
• Why may Darwin's theory of sexual selection suffer from gender bias?


  It portrays women as choosy because the cost to produce eggs are high and men as the ones that compete to be chosen which explained why men are usually more forthcoming when displaying sexual interest than women.
• Why may it become an issue of these assumptions remain unchallenged?


  It may lead people to believe the wrong things as they may believe in ideas that are outdated such as Darwins's theory of sexual selection which has roots from Victorian ideas.