gender and culture bias

• universality - the idea there is a range of psychological characteristics of human beings that can be applied to all of us, despite our individual experiences and upbringings
• androcentrism - bias because psychology has been conducted by men and so reflects their views
• alpha bias - an exaggeration in the differences between genders which misrepresents behaviour
• beta bias - misrepresentation of behaviour because researchers minimise differences in gender
• psychology has changed to have more female researchers to ensure the samples are gender balanced
• evolutionary explanation for sexual behaviour has alpha bias
• cultural bias is when all human behaviour is viewed from the perspective of one cultural standpoint
• ethnocentrism - when researchers view their own cultural behaviour as 'normal' and interprets deviation as abnormal
• cultural relativism is when behaviours can only be understood from the perspective of its cultural context
• etic construct - behaviours that are universal across all cultural groups
• emic construct - behaviours that only apply to certain cultural groups
• WEIRD - western , educated, industrialized, rich, democratic
• american college students always used in research and over represented