Psychology Paper 2 – Issues and debates question
06 Discuss gender bias in psychological research. Refer to one topic in
you have studies in your answer [ 8 marks]
A01:
Gender bias is the influence of personal beliefs of males and females’ behaviour
on research. There are two types of gender bias. Alpha bias is when gender
differences are over-exaggerated and have the tendency to imply that one
gender is superior to the other. Psychologist Sigmund Freud demonstrates alpha
bias in the form of favouring men. He implies that in the phallic stage a boy’s
identification with his father is stronger than a girl’s identification with her
mother. This results in girls having a weaker superego and therefore less moral
development in comparison to boys. Beta bias is the underestimation of
differences. It is common in research where findings from a male sample are
assumed to be the same in females. For example, in Asch’s research an all-male
sample was used and generalised to women. However, later research found that
women are more conformist.
A03:
One strength of knowledge of gender bias in research is that it has raised
awareness of androcentrism. Researchers can now be more mindful of their
biases and ensure that they are not reinforcing gender stereotypes in society.
This should make research more applicable to modern day society as opposed to
using androcentric research to explain research today.
However, a limitation of gender bias in research is that differences are assumed
to be fixed and biological. For example, Maccoby and Jacklin conducted research
and concluded that women have better verbal ability and men have better
spatial awareness due to biological factors. However, more recent research
shows that there are no such gender differences. This implies that research may
be based simply on stereotypes (constructed by society) rather than biological
fact.
Therefore, researchers should be cautious of the findings they accept.
06 Discuss gender bias in psychological research. Refer to one topic in
you have studies in your answer [ 8 marks]
A01:
Gender bias is the influence of personal beliefs of males and females’ behaviour
on research. There are two types of gender bias. Alpha bias is when gender
differences are over-exaggerated and have the tendency to imply that one
gender is superior to the other. Psychologist Sigmund Freud demonstrates alpha
bias in the form of favouring men. He implies that in the phallic stage a boy’s
identification with his father is stronger than a girl’s identification with her
mother. This results in girls having a weaker superego and therefore less moral
development in comparison to boys. Beta bias is the underestimation of
differences. It is common in research where findings from a male sample are
assumed to be the same in females. For example, in Asch’s research an all-male
sample was used and generalised to women. However, later research found that
women are more conformist.
A03:
One strength of knowledge of gender bias in research is that it has raised
awareness of androcentrism. Researchers can now be more mindful of their
biases and ensure that they are not reinforcing gender stereotypes in society.
This should make research more applicable to modern day society as opposed to
using androcentric research to explain research today.
However, a limitation of gender bias in research is that differences are assumed
to be fixed and biological. For example, Maccoby and Jacklin conducted research
and concluded that women have better verbal ability and men have better
spatial awareness due to biological factors. However, more recent research
shows that there are no such gender differences. This implies that research may
be based simply on stereotypes (constructed by society) rather than biological
fact.
Therefore, researchers should be cautious of the findings they accept.
