Gender Bias

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions, types of bias, examples, consequences, and methods to reduce gender bias in psychological research.

Gender bias

Occurs when psychological theories or research unfairly represent one gender over another.

Universality

The idea that psychological theories should apply to everyone, regardless of gender, culture or background.

Alpha bias

Occurs when psychologists exaggerate differences between men and women, presenting gender differences as fixed and natural.

Example of alpha bias

Freud's psychosexual theory, which suggested girls experienced "penis envy" while boys experienced "castration anxiety," leading Freud to believe men had a stronger superego because they experienced a more traumatic phallic stage.

Androcentric sample

A research sample that is mainly focused on or represents males.

Beta bias

Occurs when psychologists minimise or ignore differences between men and women, such as using only male participants and generalising findings to females.

Example of beta bias

Early research into the fight-or-flight response, which focused exclusively on males.

Tend-and-befriend response

A stress response suggested by Taylor et al. (2000) that females may experience, linked to the hormone oxytocin.

Oxytocin

The hormone linked to the "tend-and-befriend" stress response in females.

Androcentrism

Viewing the world from a male perspective and treating male behaviour as the norm, which can lead to female behaviour being judged as unusual or pathologised.

Under-researched groups in gender bias literature

Non-binary and transgender people.

Formanowicz's findings

An analysis of over 1,000 articles showing that gender-bias research was funded less often, published in less prestigious journals, and not taken as seriously as other types of bias, such as cultural bias.

Reflexivity

A practice where researchers recognise and consider their own assumptions and potential biases to help reduce gender bias.