Gender bias

Gender bias

The differential treatment and/or representation of males and females based on stereotypes and not real evidenced differences

Psychological theory and research is at risk of either exaggerating differences between males and females or ignoring these completely

Androcentrism

Theories which are centred on or dominated by males and the male viewpoint

This can be a conscious or unconscious bias.

In the past most psychologists were male and therefore constructed theory tended to represent a male view of the world and therefore present a level of bias

Universality

When a theory is universal it can be applied to all people irrespective of gender and culture

Alpha bias

Theories of research which exaggerate the differences between males and females

Examples of alpha bias- Freud

• Freud’s psychodynamic approach

• Boys and girls experiences different concepts in their psychosexual development :

• girls do not experience the same Oedipus complex as boys, and therefore they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys identify with their fathers

• He argued that this has an impact on development - girls are inferior to males as a result and develop a weaker superego: emphasises differences between males and females

• Feminist is failed masculinity- penis envy

• HOWEVER- there is no evidence that women possess weaker superegos- research into morality and offending challenges this assumption

Beta bias

Theories or research which minimise or ignore the differences between males and females

Often assume that findings from research on males can apply equally to females and vice versa

Beta bias examples- social influence

• Asch’s research into conformity involved a sample of only male participants and thus demonstrated beta and androcentric bias

• It was assumed that females would respond in the same way as males and therefore show the same conformity rate

• However more recent replications by Eagly showed gender differences in conformity rates (older women more conformist)

• Therefore Asch’s research and theory demonstrates beta bias as it ignore gender differences through the assumption that females would behave the same way - the research is unable to provide support for a complete explanation of conformity

AO3- reasons for bias

P- gender bias may result in research finding differences between genders that do not actually exist due to biased research methodologies and/or as a result of the gender of the researcher themselves

E- Rosenthal - male experimenters are more pleasant towards female participants and male participants and in the same research males performed less well on the tasks involved

E- feminists argue lab experimented disadvantage women because of their controlled nature and research has found that although women and men displayed different leadership styles in lab based research, in real settings they were judged more similarly (use field experiments?)

L this suggests that gender difference is not real and is due to flawed methodology and demonstrates the impact of this bias in the validity of research

A03- misrepresentation of the sexes

P- issues of gender bias have historically gone unnoticed and theory and research has contributed to the formation of rigid gender stereotypes

E- e.g. Bowlby’s monotropic theory which suggested that females must be the primary caregiver as they are innately programmed to be more nurturing to avoid serious long term negative effects has contributed to to widespread beliefs about gender roles in the family and caregiving responsibilities of females over males

E- this is socially sensitive for both mothers and fathers and can have negative economic implications, for example if the mother is the breadwinner but assumes she should stay at home with her child. This particular assumption has only recently been challenged with research (Field) supporting the role of the father as the primary caregiver

L- demonstrates the issue with biased research and how it can produce socially sensitive results and the negative implications of its contribution to negative gender stereotypes