Issues and debates revision psychology
Gender Bias
Gender bias in research happens when researchers' stereotypical views about male and
female behaviour affect their theoretical assumptions. This leads to misrepresentations of
actual male and female behaviour, either by incorrectly assuming gender differences
where none exists or by overlooking significant gender specific behaviour
Psychologists theories that are gender biased are often androcentric meaning they reflect
and support a male centric view of the world. This bias is because most psychologists who
developed these theories were male. This gender imbalance can be seen in the
composition of many psychology courses, where male psychologists are referenced more
frequently than female psychologists
- Researchers mentioned in the specification is 32 male names and 4 female names
Alpha bias
- The assumption that there are significant differences in behaviour between
genders, often leading to an overemphasis or exaggeration of these differences
between males and females
- For example in Bowlby monotropic theory that the role of the mother is more
crucial in an infant's development than the fathers role and the social norms on
1950s women likely shaped Bowlby ideas
Beta bias:
- The assumption that there are no significant differences in the behaviour of males
and females, often leading to underestimating or minimising actual behavioural
differences
- For example the fight or flight response is based on a male strategy and mainly
conducted on a male sample but there is evidence than women take a tend and
befriend approach
Androcentrism and Androcentric bias:
- When theories or studies focus on the male perspective it is called androcentrism
- When focusing on male participants lead to a lack of validity or reliability as they
study does not know about female behaviour it stuffers from androcentric bias
- Milgram suffered from androcentric beta bias because they ignored the
differences between men and women
, - However research that is androcentrism isn't always biased because if you are just
studying one gender and only generalise to one gender it is. However, if you then
try to generalise to the other gender it is androcentrism
Gynocentrism and Gynocentric bias:
- When research focuses on the female perspective it is gynocentrism
- For example Moscovici studies on minority influence only had female participants
and argued that it generalises to everyone and suffers from gynocentric beta bias
- When focusing on female participants lead to a lack of validity or reliability as they
study does not know about men's behaviour it has gynocentric bias
As psychological research is mainly done by men it tends to be androcentric meaning that
researchers are more interested in men's behaviour and not female behaviour. This means
that conclusions from study of men's behaviour is likely to remain unchallenged so an
inaccurate and misleading picture of female behaviour is likely to continue. For example
Freud theories suffer from androcentric alpha bias as they suggested that there are
permanent psychological differences between men and women. Further by claiming that
femininity was a failed form of masculinity it applied that women are inferior to men. This
is just one example but androcentric bias isn’t always as obvious as in Freud theories and
can be an issue.
The overwhelming majority of people who study psychology at university in today's
society are women. So research which uses psychology students to make generalisations
about everyone is going to suffer from gynocentric bias, unless the researchers use
stratified sampling to make sure that half of the participants are male. However
gynocentric bias has been less significant than androcentric bias because most of the
researchers are men.
Gender bias can be created as a result of publication bias. It has been reported that
studies that produced positive findings are more likely to be published than studies that
dont find any differences. In terms of gender research, this would mean that studies
showing a difference between males and females would be more likely to appear in
scientific journals than ones with no gender differences. This can exaggerate differences
between males and females, and so produce an alpha bias
Gynocentric bias is not always biased and can identify important imbalances that have
existed throughout the history of psychology. For example there are journals dedicated to
gynocentric research such as “Feminism and Psychology”. This allows psychologists to
develop their understanding of the female perspective and test if their hypotheses are
Gender Bias
Gender bias in research happens when researchers' stereotypical views about male and
female behaviour affect their theoretical assumptions. This leads to misrepresentations of
actual male and female behaviour, either by incorrectly assuming gender differences
where none exists or by overlooking significant gender specific behaviour
Psychologists theories that are gender biased are often androcentric meaning they reflect
and support a male centric view of the world. This bias is because most psychologists who
developed these theories were male. This gender imbalance can be seen in the
composition of many psychology courses, where male psychologists are referenced more
frequently than female psychologists
- Researchers mentioned in the specification is 32 male names and 4 female names
Alpha bias
- The assumption that there are significant differences in behaviour between
genders, often leading to an overemphasis or exaggeration of these differences
between males and females
- For example in Bowlby monotropic theory that the role of the mother is more
crucial in an infant's development than the fathers role and the social norms on
1950s women likely shaped Bowlby ideas
Beta bias:
- The assumption that there are no significant differences in the behaviour of males
and females, often leading to underestimating or minimising actual behavioural
differences
- For example the fight or flight response is based on a male strategy and mainly
conducted on a male sample but there is evidence than women take a tend and
befriend approach
Androcentrism and Androcentric bias:
- When theories or studies focus on the male perspective it is called androcentrism
- When focusing on male participants lead to a lack of validity or reliability as they
study does not know about female behaviour it stuffers from androcentric bias
- Milgram suffered from androcentric beta bias because they ignored the
differences between men and women
, - However research that is androcentrism isn't always biased because if you are just
studying one gender and only generalise to one gender it is. However, if you then
try to generalise to the other gender it is androcentrism
Gynocentrism and Gynocentric bias:
- When research focuses on the female perspective it is gynocentrism
- For example Moscovici studies on minority influence only had female participants
and argued that it generalises to everyone and suffers from gynocentric beta bias
- When focusing on female participants lead to a lack of validity or reliability as they
study does not know about men's behaviour it has gynocentric bias
As psychological research is mainly done by men it tends to be androcentric meaning that
researchers are more interested in men's behaviour and not female behaviour. This means
that conclusions from study of men's behaviour is likely to remain unchallenged so an
inaccurate and misleading picture of female behaviour is likely to continue. For example
Freud theories suffer from androcentric alpha bias as they suggested that there are
permanent psychological differences between men and women. Further by claiming that
femininity was a failed form of masculinity it applied that women are inferior to men. This
is just one example but androcentric bias isn’t always as obvious as in Freud theories and
can be an issue.
The overwhelming majority of people who study psychology at university in today's
society are women. So research which uses psychology students to make generalisations
about everyone is going to suffer from gynocentric bias, unless the researchers use
stratified sampling to make sure that half of the participants are male. However
gynocentric bias has been less significant than androcentric bias because most of the
researchers are men.
Gender bias can be created as a result of publication bias. It has been reported that
studies that produced positive findings are more likely to be published than studies that
dont find any differences. In terms of gender research, this would mean that studies
showing a difference between males and females would be more likely to appear in
scientific journals than ones with no gender differences. This can exaggerate differences
between males and females, and so produce an alpha bias
Gynocentric bias is not always biased and can identify important imbalances that have
existed throughout the history of psychology. For example there are journals dedicated to
gynocentric research such as “Feminism and Psychology”. This allows psychologists to
develop their understanding of the female perspective and test if their hypotheses are
