ISSUES AND DEBATES

Gender bias

Where our ideas about how different gender identities should behave affects our objectivity. It can be a tendency to treat or represent one gender differently to another during research.

Gender bias threatens universality - the idea that psychologists theories can apply to all people.

Gender bias - Androcentrism

Presenting a male-dominated view, behav of men is taken as the norm, often due to research conducted on only males then generalized to females. This can lead to women being seen as ‘abnormal’ or ‘inferior’.

e.g Freud believed femininity was failed masculinity(male centred norm), and Asch used an all male norm, generalizing to women.

Gender bias - Alpha bias

When differences between men and women are shown and may be exaggerated/over-estimated either to heighten the value of women or devalue them. This can lead to impacting women in society, such as the glass ceiling, opportunities, and girls education.

e.g evolutionary theory suggests its a males best interest to impregnate as many women as possible to spread their genetics, while women are posed to more careful as they have less chances of having children. So devalues women by allowing promiscuity in men, but not women.

Gender bias - Beta bias

When differences between two sexes are ignored, minimised or underestimated and then generalised to the opposite sex. So it ‘down plays’ differences as assume findings equally apply to both sexes. So can lead to health concerns, such as drugs tested on males but when given to women they experience side effects.

e.g fight or flight early research was based on male animals, yet assumed to be a universal response, but taylor et al found women ‘tend and befriend’ so may not be universal.

Gender bias - evaluation

-Gender biased psychological researcg may create misleading assumptions about female behav, failing to challenge neg stereotypes. Carol Travis - ‘it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal, having a long lasting effect on woman due to exaggerating/ignoring the differences between them. So, provides a scientific ‘justification’ to deny women opportunities both in the workplace and society. So doesnt have a positive impact on women. H:Many modern researcgers now recognise the effect of their values and sumptions, and embrace it as a crucial part of the research process.

-Men dominate the senior teaching and research level in universaties. Research more likely to be conducted by men, Nicolson - argued that the research process itself disadvantages female pps, as male researcher may expect women to be irrational and unable to complete tasks, meaning they are likely to underperform due to researcher bias. So research is more likely to be conducted by men, meaning it may feed into gender bias. So female concerns not investigated and women not included, e.g post partum depression.

-Biological findings presented as fixed, when they are not. Maccoby + jacklin sugg girls have superior verbal ability, boys have superior spatial diff wired into brain, but Joel et al found no such diff with brain scanning. So we should be cautious with accepting bio statements as they are usually based on social stereotypes. So bio exp are gender biased and should use others.

+Feminist psych way to counter gender bias. Psych for women, over psych of women, drawing att to sources of bias and under researched parts of psych. So promotes an agenda focusing on womens concerns. So combats gender bias and imrpoves psych research.

How can we reduce gender bias?

Use mixed sex samples, dont overgeneralise when studying men.

Cultural bias

When someone believes that their own culture is superior to others and represents ‘normality’. Means that if there are any cultural diff, they will be viewed as abnormal. Western psych use western standards to measure everything, Henrich - most studied people. WEIRD. Western, educated, from industrialised, rich democracies.

Diff types of cultural bias.

Ethnocentrism - Judging and evaluating other cultures in terms of norms and values of your own, so other cultures are placed as abnormal.

Cultural relativism - The idea that norms, valies, ethics and moral standards can only be understood within specific social and cultural contexts.