A01

• gender bias

  • different treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences
• alpha bias

  tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women= theories devalue one gender.
• alpha bias example

  •  Psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour suggest that criminality occurs due to a deviant superego.
  • According to Freud, since females do not experience castration anxiety, they have less of a need to identify with the moral standards of their same-sex parent, as compared to boys
  • This suggests that females, are less moral than males - an idea which has been refuted by Hoffman et al. 
• beta bias

  • tendency to minimise the differences between genders
  • applying findings just based on men to women
• example of beta bias

  • aschs research into conformity, only male ppts yet generalised to whole pop, later found differences in conformity between men and women- milgram and zimbardo too
  • Early research conducted into the fight or flight response exclusively used male lab mice because they experience fewer hormonal fluctuations thus changes in adrenaline following stressor could be more reliably measured. However, results from these studies were then generalised to females, ignoring differences between the two sexes (e.g. speed and extent of the fight or flight response). 
• androcentrism

  • consequence of beta bias, when all behaviour is compared to a male standard-Androcentrism can result in people assuming that what is true for men is also true for women, thus minimising the differences between men and women 
• universitality

  • The aim to develop theories that apply to all people, which may include real differences.
  • describes any underlying characteristic of human behaviour which can be applied to all individuals, regardless of their differences.
  • Bias, lack of validity and issues with reliability reduce the universality of psychological findings. 
• possible consequences of gender bias

  • predjudice, discrimination, sexism= normal
  • The male viewpoint/behaviour becomes the ‘norm’ or the model for behaviour generally which could lead to female behaviour being viewed as ‘abnormal’