issues and debates- gender bias

gender bias- different treatment/ representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than actual differences.

universality- the aim to develop theories that apply to all people and acknowledge real differences without claiming superiority of one gender.

alpha bias- exaggerates differences between sexes, say differences are fixed and inevitable, often devalues women.

examples of alpha bias:

alpha bias favouring males- freud 1905- said children in phallic psychosexual stage desire opposite sex parent which is solved by identification of same sex parent. girls identification is weaker so weaker superego and moral development.

alpha bias favouring females- Chodrow 1968- said daughters and mothers are more connected than mothers and sons from biological differences. women better bonds with people and empathy.

beta bias- minimises differences. ignores/ underestimates the differences between male and female. occurs when female participants arnt included in research but its assumed that the research findings apply to them.

example of beta bias- fight or flight- research was done on male animals because female hormones fluctuate but the results was still assumed to be a universal response to threat.

androcentrism- male point of view. psychological theories mainly represent male world view. alpha and beta bias are consequences of androcentrism. male behaviour viewed as the norm so females are abnormal when they don’t act the same way.

Brescoll and Uhlmann 2008- PMS has a label and a medical diagnosis turning normal female emotions like anger into a biological disorder but male anger is seen as rational response to external pressures.

3 main ways gender bias can occur:

  1. male only samples e.g ash, milgram, zimbardo

  2. biological differences emphasis. we take a biological trait as fact creating stereotypes e.g hormonal differences result in things like men shouldn’t cry.

  3. viewing male behaviour as standard e.g fight or flight.

implications of gender bias:

  • can create misleading assumptions of females behaviour as men used in research and assume thats the normal so women feel abnormal

consequences of gender bgias:

  • damaging consequences if don’t acknowledge negative stereotypes

reflexivity- can reduce impact. process of reflecting relationship between research and researcher. acknoledge bias and knowing might not be genralisable to everyone.

lack of female researchers in field. lack of females in high up positions. male researchers more likley to have their research published.