Gender And Culture Psychology: Gender Bias

What is universality?

Any underlying characteristic of human being that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing.

What is gender bias?

When psychological research does not justifiably represent the experience and behaviour of men or women (usually women).

What is psychological research that exaggerates differences?

Alpha-biased.

What is alpha bias?

Research that focuses on differences between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that exaggerates these differences.

Does alpha bias heighten the value of women?

It sometimes heightens the value of women, but more often, it devalues women in relation to men.

What is an example of alpha bias in psychological research?

Freud’s theory of psychosexual development: during the phallic stage of development, both girls and boys develop a desire for their opposite gender parent. In a boy, this creates very strong castration anxiety but this is resolved when the boy identifies with his father. However, a girl’s eventual identification with her mother is seen as weaker, making her superego weaker, showing women as inferior to men.

Can alpha bias also favour women in the psychodynamic approach?

Yes.

What did Chodorow suggest?

Chodrow suggested 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 empathise.

What is psychological research that ignores or underestimates differences?

Beta-biased.

What is beta bias?

Research that focuses on similarities between men and women, and therefore tends to present a view that ignores or minimises differences.

What is an example of beta bias in psychological research?

Research on the fight or flight response: biological research has generally favoured using male animals because female behaviour is affected by regular hormone changes due to ovulation, ignoring any possible differences. Early researches assumed both genders assume to threatening situations with fight or flight.

What did Taylor et al. claim?

That the early assumptions of fight or flight were not true and described the tend and befriend response. The love hormone oxytocin is more plentiful with women and it seems that women respond to stress by increasing its production.

What does the fight or flight response illustrate?

How research that minimises gender differences may result in a misrepresentation of women’s behaviour.

What are alpha and beta bias consequences of?

Androcentrism.

What is androcentrism?

Male centred, when ‘normal behaviour‘ is judged according to a male standard, so female behaviour is often judged to be ‘abnormal‘ or ‘deficient‘ by comparison.

Over the years, what has psychology presented?

A make dominated version of the world. For example, the American Psychological association published a list of the 100 most influential psychologists of the 20th century which only included 6 women^;

What has happened to women’s behaviour?

If it has been considered, it has been misunderstood, and at worse, pathologised - taken as a sign of illness.

What are the limitations in gender bias?

• Biological versus social explanations.

• Sexism in research.

• Gender-biased research.

Howe are biological versus social explanations a limitation of gender differences?

Gender differences are often presented as fixed and enduring (i.e. alpha bias) when they are not. Maccoby and ]Jacklin presented the findings of several gender studies which concluded that girls have superior verbal ability whereas boys have better spatial ability. Maccoby and Jacklin suggested that these differences are 'hardwired" into the brain before birth. Such findings become widely reported and seen as facts. In fact Joel et al. used brain scanning and found no such sex differences in brain structure or processing. It is possible that the data from Maccoby and Jacklin was popularised because it fitted existing stereotypes of girls as 'speakers' and boys as 'doers.

What do biological versus social explanations suggest about gender bias?

That we should be wary of accepting research findings as biological facts

when they might be explained better as social stereotypes.

What is the counterpoint to the biological versus social explanations?

This does not mean that psychologists should avoid studying possible gender differences in the brain. For instance, research by Ingalhalikar et al. suggests that the popular social stereotype that women are better at multitasking may have some biological truth to it. It seems that a woman's brain may benefit from better connections between the right and the left hemisphere than in a man's brain.

What does the counterpoint of the biological versus social explanations suggest?

That there may be biological differences but we still should be wary of exaggerating the effect they may have on behaviour.

How is sexism in research a limitation of gender bias?

Gender bias promotes sexism in the research process. Women remain underrepresented in university departments, particularly in science. Although psychology's undergraduate intake is mainly of women, lecturers in psychology departments are more likely to be men This means research is more likely to be conducted by men and this may disadvantage participants who are women. For example, a male researcher may expect women to be irrational and unable to complete complex tasks and such expectations are likely to mean that women underperform in research studies.

What does sexism in research mean?

That the institutional structures and methods of psychology may produce findings that are gender-biased.

How is gender-biased research a limitation of gender bias?

Research challenging gender biases may not be published. Formanowicz et al. analysed more than 1000 articles relating to gender bias, published over eight years. They found that research on gender bias is funded less often and is published by less prestigious journals. The consequence of this is that fewer scholars become aware of it or apply it within their own work. The researchers argued that this still held true when gender bias was compared with other forms of bias, such as ethnic bias, and when other factors were controlled, such as the gender of the author(s) and the methodology used.

What does gender-biased research suggest?

This suggests that gender bias in psychological research may not be taken as seriously as other forms of bias.