issues and debates

• gender is behavioural, cultural and psychological characteristics that distinguish male from females
• gender bias is where one gender is treated less favourably or research does not justifiably represent experiences of men or women
• androcentrism is where researchers take a male centred view of the world and judge behaviour according to a male standard

  alpha and beta biases are consequences of androcentrism
• androcentrism can be seen in PMS

  stereotypes and trivialises women's experiences

  women who show anger are hormonal but men are seen as assertive and responding rationally
• alpha bias is where research exaggerates differences between men and women

  differences presented as fixed and inevitable and often devalue women
• alpha bias seen in evolutionary theory

  men more focused on intra-sexual selection (competing with males to access females), women engage in inter-sexual selection (look for qualities in opposite sex)

  women value quality over quantity
• beta bias focuses on similarities between men and women, presents a view that ignores and minimises a difference

  females often excluded from research process so behaviour misrepresented
• beta bias seen in

  • fight or flight response as women tend and befriend
  • attachment research which focuses on mother
  • Kohlberg stages of moral development
  • Asch and Milgram as only male participants
• Alpha bias in Freud psychosexual stages

  phallic stage: children desire opposite sex parent

  boy has castration anxiety, resolved by identifying with father, girls identification is weaker

  suggests weaker superego and females morally inferior
• gender bias strengths

  • practical application, emphasise importance of women
  • Cornwell et Al 2012 shows females better at learning, more attentive and organised
  • take feminist approach, accept differences to remove stereotype
  • Eagly (1978) women less effective leaders, develop training programmes, more female leaders
• gender bias weaknesses

  • differences presented as fixed and enduring
  • women shown as primary caregiver but field shows men can also
  • alpha bias can devalue men
  • women seen as more emotional
  • diagnostic system less likely to diagnose men with depression
• cultural bias is when experience and researcher's cultural background can distort the way they interpret or research other cultures
• etic approach looks at behaviour from outside of given culture and attempts to describe those behaviours as universal
• emic approach is culturally specific viewpoint and attempts to study one culture alone in order to understand a culturally-specific behaviour
• imposed etic is where you impose your own cultural understanding on the rest of the world
• culture is values, beliefs and patterns of behaviour shared by group of different people
• ethnocentrism is seeing world from your own cultural perspective, believing it to be normal and correct

  assumes one ethnic group is superior
• cultural relativism is the opinion that there is no global right or wrong, must consider behaviour of individual within their culture
• culture bias can be seen in studies focusing on western culture

  • Milgram and obedience
  • Ainsworth strange situation
  • Asch conformity
• strength of culture biased research

  • progress in diagnosing mental disorders
  • American DSM initially ignored mental disorders rarer in American culture
  • can now diagnose and treat
• strength of culture biased research

  • appreciate cultural relativism
  • international conferences increase exchange of idea between psychologists
  • indigenous people should be studied in cultural context
  • Afrocentrism, black people have African roots to consider
  • develop less biased and relevant theories, appropriate treatments
• weakness of culturally biased research

  • leads to prejudices in society
  • Gould 1981 first IQ test in America during WW1
  • ethnocentric questions so minorities score lower than Americans
  • seen as mentally unfit, feeble minded, get less opportunities
• Strength of culture biased research

  • western participants familiar with research aims, objectives and procedures
  • better to generalise results and make general laws
  • minorities don't know what to expect and do not trust research system
• free will suggests human behaviour is result of our own choices

  we should take responsibility for actions

  seen in humanistic approach as we have ability to reach self actualisation
• psychic determinism suggests behaviour is result of unconscious mind and early childhood experiences

  seen in Freud's theory of tripartite personality and psychosexual stages
• biological determinism suggests behaviour is result of genes, brain physiology and biochemistry (hereditary)

  seen in OCD, biological approach and twin studies
• environmental determinism suggests behaviour is result of learning environment

  seen in learning theories: conditioning and social learning theory
• (hard) determinism suggests behaviour is result of internal or external factors

  soft determinism suggests behaviour is constrained to an extent due to internal or external factors but we have free will
• Hill et Al 1999 suggests IGF2R gene causes intelligence

  Chorley et Al found significant correlation between IQ test score and gene