Discuss gender bias in psychological research. Refer to examples of alpha
bias and beta bias in your answer. (16 marks)
A gender bias occurs when men and or women are treated differently or represented in a
different way from each other in psychological research. Traditionally psychology has been a
male dominated discipline, thus many psychological theories and explanations reflect a
male’s point of view.
Alpha bias is a type of bias that exaggerates differences between gender in a study. The
differences usually heighten the value of men and devalues females in relation to their male
equal. An example of this is Wilson 1975 study, which suggests sexual promiscuity in males
is genetically determined whilst females who engage in the same behaviour are regarded of
going against their ‘nature.’ Wilson study is an example of alpha bias as exaggerates
differences between the genders.
A beta bias occurs when a study minimises differences between men and women. This type
of bias occurs usually when female’s participants are not included as part of the research
process and then its assumed research finding apply equally to both sexes. For example, the
‘fight or flight response’ is based exclusively on male’s animals and is assumed to have a
universal response to threatening situations, this beta biased approach suggests female
behaviour was not examined until recently. Thus, this bias makes the main aim of
psychology unclear, which is to generates theories that have ‘universality’ and can be
applied to everyone.
Another type of bias is androcentrism. This type of bias contains theory which are focused
on men and sees all behaviour that deviates from male behaviour considered abnormal.
Thus, female behaviour is misunderstood and their behaviour is pathologized as its seen a
disorder or instability.
A strength of psychological research is reflexivity. For example, Dambrin and Lambert study
on the lack of women in executive positions in accountancy firms in their research they
included reflection on how gender related experiences influenced their reading of events.
This is a strength to psychological research as many modern researchers are beginning to
recognise the effect their own values and assumption are having on the nature of their
work. This is important in psychology when evaluating your work as this can help increase
validity of result and shape future research. Thus, reflexivity is an important development in
psychology and may lead to greater awareness of the role of personal biases in research.
Another limitation of psychological research is implication of gender bias. For example,
gender, biased research creates misleading assumption about female behaviour and allow
for discriminatory practices to take place. This as a result has damaging effect on women
making them feel inferior to men as ‘it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal’ this
could then lead to depression in women as they are looked down upon due to their
biological differences. Thus, this suggests gender bias research is not just a methodological
problem it will have real implication which affect the health and wellbeing and prospects of
real women in society.
bias and beta bias in your answer. (16 marks)
A gender bias occurs when men and or women are treated differently or represented in a
different way from each other in psychological research. Traditionally psychology has been a
male dominated discipline, thus many psychological theories and explanations reflect a
male’s point of view.
Alpha bias is a type of bias that exaggerates differences between gender in a study. The
differences usually heighten the value of men and devalues females in relation to their male
equal. An example of this is Wilson 1975 study, which suggests sexual promiscuity in males
is genetically determined whilst females who engage in the same behaviour are regarded of
going against their ‘nature.’ Wilson study is an example of alpha bias as exaggerates
differences between the genders.
A beta bias occurs when a study minimises differences between men and women. This type
of bias occurs usually when female’s participants are not included as part of the research
process and then its assumed research finding apply equally to both sexes. For example, the
‘fight or flight response’ is based exclusively on male’s animals and is assumed to have a
universal response to threatening situations, this beta biased approach suggests female
behaviour was not examined until recently. Thus, this bias makes the main aim of
psychology unclear, which is to generates theories that have ‘universality’ and can be
applied to everyone.
Another type of bias is androcentrism. This type of bias contains theory which are focused
on men and sees all behaviour that deviates from male behaviour considered abnormal.
Thus, female behaviour is misunderstood and their behaviour is pathologized as its seen a
disorder or instability.
A strength of psychological research is reflexivity. For example, Dambrin and Lambert study
on the lack of women in executive positions in accountancy firms in their research they
included reflection on how gender related experiences influenced their reading of events.
This is a strength to psychological research as many modern researchers are beginning to
recognise the effect their own values and assumption are having on the nature of their
work. This is important in psychology when evaluating your work as this can help increase
validity of result and shape future research. Thus, reflexivity is an important development in
psychology and may lead to greater awareness of the role of personal biases in research.
Another limitation of psychological research is implication of gender bias. For example,
gender, biased research creates misleading assumption about female behaviour and allow
for discriminatory practices to take place. This as a result has damaging effect on women
making them feel inferior to men as ‘it becomes normal for women to feel abnormal’ this
could then lead to depression in women as they are looked down upon due to their
biological differences. Thus, this suggests gender bias research is not just a methodological
problem it will have real implication which affect the health and wellbeing and prospects of
real women in society.
