Gender

• What is gender bias ?

  • the different treatment and/or representation of male + female based on stereotypes and not real differences
• What are the 4 key terms ?

  • alpha bias
  • beta bias
  • androcenteism
  • universality
• what is alpha bias ?


  Theories which exaggerate the difference between males and females

  • devalue one gender in comparison to the other
• What is beta bias ?


  Theories which minimise the sex differences

  • misrepresentation of behaviour
  • studies that use only men or only women then generalise the findings
• What is androcentrism ?

  theories which represent male views

  • male bias, male behaviour is taken as the norm
  • some women’s behaviour is pathologised
  • centred or focussed on men, neglecting or exclusion of women
• what is universality ?

  no differences between males + females conclusions applied to everyone regardless of culture/sex

  • develop theories that apply to al people which may include real differences
• What is gynocentrism ?


  theories which represent female views
• What studies demonstrate gender bias ?

  • Ash- beta bias - no females pp - conclusions were universal -> Neto found women conform due to wanting social relationships
  • zimbardo- beta bias - no men, findings were universal
  • freuds psychosexjal stages- alpha bias - girls don’t experience castration but do have penis envy
  • attachment - all research assumes the mother is the primary caregiver
• Extension of androcenteism ?

  • a consequence of beta bias
  • if you only research males their behaviour is the ‘norm’.
  • any behaviour that deviates is abnormal
  • travis
• What did travis find ?

  Most cultures take male behaviour as standard leading to female behaviour being misunderstood or pathologised
• What did travis say androcenteism affected ?

  Society -

  • feminists disagree with PMS as a stereotype as it trivilises female experience
  • PMS is a social construct that is medicalises female emotions by being hormonal But male anger is a rational response to external pressures
• How to reduce gender bias ?

  Jhonson + Kirk

  • found by anonymising applications at both applicant + reviewer level for scientific research on the hubble space telescope led to a higher rate of women being selected
  • also found thag male reviewers rage females as worse
• Evaluation ?

  • methodology
  • psychological evidence
  • practical application
• Methodology ?


  Rosenthal - found that male researchers are more pleasant + friendly to female ppl than to males. leads to pp performing worse in assigned tasks

  • research should have stabderdised procesure + equal sex number
  • Consider double blind
• Research support ?

  • zimbardo
  • ash
  • freud
  • attachment
• Practical applications ?

  • led to influence of equality in education + questioning behaviours based on male norms