gender bias

universality

any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing, bias undermines this

alpha bias

differences between men and women shown and may be exaggerated, usually to devalue women, differences presented as real and enduring, fixed and inevitable

examples of alpha bias in psych

oedipus and electra complexes, women's problems remain unresolved, women have weaker superego than men in Freud's phallic stage

beta bias

differences between 2 sexes are ignored or minimised and then generalised to the opposite sex, occurs when females not included in studies

examples of beta bias in psych

milgram assumed findings apply to both sexes with no evidence to support this, freud based complexes on penis envy and Little Hans study, did not invent electra complex

androcentrism

alpha and beta bias are consequences of this, male-centred, when ‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to male standard

examples of androcentrism in psych

APA posted list of 100 most influential psychologists of 20th century which only included 6 women, women’s behaviour has been pathologised whereas men’s anger is seen as rational response to external pressures (Brescol and Uhlmann)

limitation of gender bias - biological vs social explanations

Maccoby and Jacklin - concluded girls have superior verbal ability and boys have better spatial ability, became widely accepted as women seen as speakers whilst men as doers, Joel - found no such difference when doing brain scans - should be wary of accepting research findings as biological facts as may just be stereotypes

limitation of gender bias - promotes sexism in research

murphy - women remain underrepresented in uni departments and although psych undergrad intake is mainly women, lecturers more likely to be men, nicolson - male researcher may expect women to be irrational, causing women to underperform in research studies

limitation of gender bias - research challenging gender stereotypes may not be published

formanowicz - analysed 1000 articles relating to gender bias over 8 years and found it is funded less often and published in less prestigious journals, fewer scholars aware of gender bias so do not apply it in their work, suggests gender bias is taken less seriously

reflexivity

recognising how own values and assumptions can affect work/ research