AO1 - Gender Bias

• Universality - The idea that conclusions drawn from research can be applied to everybody, regardless of time period, gender or culture

  • For example, believing that some behaviours are the same for all genders
• Gender bias - When psychological research or theory offers a view that des not represent the experience and behaviour of both men and women

  • Feminist psychologists argue that psychology has been build on the biased research of male psychologists and has been shaped to uphold male superiority. There are three major types of gender bias, all which limit universality
• Androcentrism is the overall issue concerned with gender bias - this is a male centred view of human behaviour
• Androcentrism:

  • Research that is based only on males, then it is used as the standard or expected norm for both genders
  • If our understanding of what is 'normal' behaviour comes from male only samples, then any behaviour that deviated from this is seen as abnormal or inferior
  • This leads to female behaviour being seen as undesirable, misunderstood or pathologised
• An example of androcentrism is research into conformity by Asch

  • It was conducted on a sample of males and then generalised to both sexes, therefore if females conformed more than 37% of the time then they may have been seen as abnormal
• Another example of androcentrism is research into obedience by Milgram

  • It was conducted on a sample of all males and then generalised to both sexes, therefore if females obeyed more than 65% of the time then they may have been seen as abnormal
• Alpha bias is an outcome of androcentrism
• Alpha bias:

  • Research/theories misrepresent behaviours as it exaggerates differences between males and females, serving to reinforce gender stereotypes and usually devalue women as women are often not seen as 'the norm'
• An example of alpha bias is evolutionary research on relationships

  • Buss has shown that males seek a partner that is young and attractive (fertile) whereas females seek a man with resources (high paid jobs), reinforcing these gender stereotypes
• Beta bias is another outcome of androcentrism
• Beta bias:

  • Research/theories misrepresent behaviour as they ignore or minimise the differences between males and females (saying they are the same)
  • Important aspects of female experiences are ignored, so limits any conclusions drawn
  • Beta bias often occurs when female participants are not included in a sample (androcentric) and it is assumed the findings can apply equally to both genders
• An example of beta bias is the fight or flight response

  • It has been described as universal but much of the early research was conducted on male animals/males