Gender differences

• Gender bias is the differential treatment or representation of

  men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences. This bias can exist in the way that research is carried out (biased sampling etc) or in theories that are biased in favour of a particular gender. this bias can take a number of forms, for example by overemphasising or underemphasising the differences between

  gender
• Most often the bias is against females, favouring males. A more common term that we can use, and one that gets used

  outside of psychology is sexism
• Sexism in explanations of human behaviour is nothing new. Aristotle saw women as being inferior and believed that this inferiority was rooted in biology and physiology:

  "We should look upon the female as being a deformity, though one which occurs in the ordinary course of nature”
• It’s important to consider the issue of gender bias due to how

  psychological research is used. Sometimes it is used politically. E.g. To keep women out of university or to put women in mental health institutions
• Psychologists have established differences between men and women, but this may be due to biases within the research.
• Gender difference - if there are biological differences between men and women that can explain why more women are diagnosed.

  Gender bias - if it is due to male psychiatrists viewing female behaviour as ‘abnormal’
• There are two types of gender bias

  Alpha bias: Over-emphasising differences between men and women.

  Beta bias: Minimising differences between men and women.
• alpha bias 


  Freuds theory of psychosexual development is an example of this as Freud claimed that femininity is failed masculinity, an incapable difference. in discussion of female development, he suggested that ‘we must not allow ourselves to regard the two sexes as completely equal in positions of worth “
• alpha bias pt2


  the ‘deficiency‘ of women was, according to Freud‘ caused by the absence of a penis. women are jealous of penis‘s (penis envy) And they are morally inferior (because the superego governs moral behaviour, develops from the Oedipus complex and women don’t experience this)
• beta bias 


  insights derived from studies of men will apply to women. and o centric bias in psychology. this is evident in kohlberg theory of moral reasoning