Issues & debates

• Universality and bias.

  Psychologists hold beliefs and values that have been influenced by the social and historical context within which they live. These may be biased, leaning towards a subjective view that does not reflect objective reality. This means bias in research processes may be inevitable, despite psychologists' claims about discovering ‘facts’ that are ‘objective’ and ‘value-free’. Bias also undermines psychology's claims to universality. The conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone, anywhere, regardless of time or culture.
• Alpha Bias:

  Psychological research that exaggerates differences. Typically presented as fixed and inevitable, often they devalue females in relation to males. (Freud, Psychosexual stages). However Alpha bias can sometimes favor women (Psychodynamic approach, Chodorow).
• Freud: During the phallic stage both boys and girls develop a desire for their opposite-sex parent. A boy creates a very strong castration anxiety which is resolved when the boy identifies with his father. But the girl’s eventual identification with her same-sex parent is weaker, meaning her superego is weaker. Therefore girls/women are morally inferior to boys.
• Chodorow: Suggests that daughters and mothers have a greater connectedness than sons and mothers because of biological similarities. As a result of the child’s closeness, women develop better abilities to bond with others and empathize.
• Research examples of Alpha Bias:

  • Chodorow
  • Freud
  • Bowlbys monotropic theory
  • Evolutionary theory of relationships
• Beta Bias:

  Psychological research ignores or underestimates differences. This happens when we assume that research findings apply equally to both sexes (fight or flight) (Taylor et al). This illustrates how beta-biased research may result in a misrepresentation of female behavior or male behavior (research on attachment that assumed the mother is the sole emotional carer)
• Fight or fight: Biological research generally favors using male animals because female behavior is affected by regular hormonal changes due to ovulation. This ignores any possible difference. Early research into fight or flight assumed that both males and females response to threatening situations with fight or flight.
• Taylor et al: claimed this is not true and describe a tend and befriend response. Oxytocin is more plentiful in females, which means that women respond to stress by increasing oxytocin production. This reduces the fight or flight response and enhances a preference for ‘tend and befriend’.
• Androcentrism

  Alpha bias and beta bias are consequences of androcentrism. Psychologists have presented a male-dominated version of the world. For example, the American Psychological Association published a list of 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century, 6 were women. This suggests that psychology has traditionally been a subject produced by males, for males about males.
• Example of Androcentism: Female behavior when considered has been misunderstood and at worst pathologized.  Feminists have objected to the diagnosis category premenstrual syndrome, because it medicalises female emotions, like anger, by explaining these in hormonal terms. Male anger in contrast often seen as a rational response to external pressures.