Issues and Debates
Gender and culture in psychology: Gender bias
Universality and bias
Psychologists are influenced by their social and historical context – may have biased
beliefs, lean towards a subjective view that may not reflect objective reality.
Bias in research may be inevitable despite claims of objectivity and value-free facts.
Bias undermines claims of universality – that conclusions apply to everyone.
May lead to misrepresentation.
Hare-Mustin and Marecek: 2 types of gender bias…
Alpha bias
Exaggerates differences
Often seen as fixed and inevitable, real and enduring
Heighten or devalue females, encourages stereotypes – real and enduring differences
may be beneficial
Caused by trying to avoid universality
e.g. Freud’s psychosexual development:
1. During phallic stage boys and girls develop desire for opposite-sex parent
2. Boy = castration anxiety then identifies with father, girls ‘penis envy’
3. But girl’s eventual identification with same-sex parent is weaker
4. So her Superego is weaker (because it develops by taking on the same-sex
parent’s moral perspective)
5. So girls/women are morally inferior
Said anxiety was a ‘female’ symptom, called it ‘hysteria’.
Saw femininity as a failed form of masculinity.
Can sometimes favour women e.g. Chodorow: daughters and mothers have a greater
connectedness than sons and mothers due to biological similarities – due to child’s
closeness, women develop better abilities to bond with others and emphasise.
Evolutionary theory of relationships – male promiscuity is normal and acceptable –
unlimited supply of male sex cells, promiscuity in women is abnormal and
unacceptable.
Beta bias
Ignores/underestimates differences
,We assume research findings apply to both sexes even when females have been
excluded from research
Often androcentric e.g. Asch’s conformity studies
Cause by trying to assume universality
e.g. fight or flight research – biological research uses male animals to avoid hormonal
changes due to ovulation.
Early research assumed males and females responded to threatening situations with
fight or flight.
Can prompt more research e.g. Taylor
Taylor et al.: not true – tend and befriend – love hormone oxytocin more plentiful in
females, women respond to stress by increasing its production --> tend and befriend,
looking after others.
Misrepresentation of females and males e.g. attachment – emotional role provided
solely by mothers, research on fathers show they can do this too
Androcentrism
Alpha and beta are consequences of androcentrism
Male-dominated e.g. APA’s list of 100 most influential psychologists of the 20 th century
included 6 women – produced by males, for males, about males.
Female behaviour has been ignored, misunderstood and pathologised, subjected to
category of premenstrual syndrome e.g. medicalising female emotions e.g. anger by
explaining these in hormonal terms.
Male anger, on the other hand, is often seen as a rational response to external
pressures (Brescoll and Uhlmann).
Evaluation
Biological vs social explanations
o Gender differences often presented as fixed and enduring when they are
not
o Maccoby and Jacklin: several studies, concluded girls have superior verbal
ability and boys better spatial
o Suggested these differences are ‘hardwired’ into the brain before birth
o Widely reported, seen as facts
o Joel et al.: used brain scanning, found no such differences in brain
structure or processing
o M&J may have been publicised as it fitted existing stereotypes of girls as
‘speakers’ and boys as ‘doers’
o Should be wary – findings may be explained by social stereotypes not
biological facts
, COUNTERPOINT
o Doesn’t mean we should avoid studying possible gender differences in the
brain
o Ingalhalikar et al: idea that females are better at multitasking as they
have better connected hemispheres may have biological truth to it
o Harasty: females have larger Broca’s areas
o Women’s brains may have better connections between hemispheres
o So may be biological differences but should be careful in exaggerating
their effect on behaviour
o More research needed
Increasing value of women
o Discussion about gender bias in research --> nowadays look to reduce it
and increase value of women in society
o Cornwell: females better at learning as more attentive and organised –
positive attributes of women
o Males and females do possess differences
o Can develop theories emphasising important of women
o Overcome sexist attitudes and gender bias in research publications
Sexism in research
o Gender bias promotes sexism in research
o Women underrepresented in university departments esp. in science
o Psychology’s undergraduate intake is mainly female but psychology
lecturers more likely to be male (Murphy et al.)
o More likely that research is conducted by males – may disadvantage
female ppts e.g. placed in inequitable relationships with predominantly
male researchers, female concerns not reflected in research qs
o E.g. male researcher may expect females to be irrational and unable to
complete complex tasks – negatively label, expectations may mean
female ppts underperform in research studies
o Institutional structures and psychological methods may produce gender-
biased findings
Gender-biased research
o Research challenging gender biases may not be published
o Formanowicz et al.: analysed over 1000 articles relating to gender bias,
published over 8 years
o Research on gender bias funded less often and is published by less
prestigious journals
o So fewer scholars were aware of it or applied it in their work
o Researchers argued that this still held true when gender bias was
compared to other kinds of bias e.g. ethnic + when other factors were
controlled e.g. author’s gender and methodology used
o Gender bias not taken as seriously as other kinds of bias
Real-life implications
o Creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour
o Fails to challenge stereotypes
o Validates discriminatory practices
Gender and culture in psychology: Gender bias
Universality and bias
Psychologists are influenced by their social and historical context – may have biased
beliefs, lean towards a subjective view that may not reflect objective reality.
Bias in research may be inevitable despite claims of objectivity and value-free facts.
Bias undermines claims of universality – that conclusions apply to everyone.
May lead to misrepresentation.
Hare-Mustin and Marecek: 2 types of gender bias…
Alpha bias
Exaggerates differences
Often seen as fixed and inevitable, real and enduring
Heighten or devalue females, encourages stereotypes – real and enduring differences
may be beneficial
Caused by trying to avoid universality
e.g. Freud’s psychosexual development:
1. During phallic stage boys and girls develop desire for opposite-sex parent
2. Boy = castration anxiety then identifies with father, girls ‘penis envy’
3. But girl’s eventual identification with same-sex parent is weaker
4. So her Superego is weaker (because it develops by taking on the same-sex
parent’s moral perspective)
5. So girls/women are morally inferior
Said anxiety was a ‘female’ symptom, called it ‘hysteria’.
Saw femininity as a failed form of masculinity.
Can sometimes favour women e.g. Chodorow: daughters and mothers have a greater
connectedness than sons and mothers due to biological similarities – due to child’s
closeness, women develop better abilities to bond with others and emphasise.
Evolutionary theory of relationships – male promiscuity is normal and acceptable –
unlimited supply of male sex cells, promiscuity in women is abnormal and
unacceptable.
Beta bias
Ignores/underestimates differences
,We assume research findings apply to both sexes even when females have been
excluded from research
Often androcentric e.g. Asch’s conformity studies
Cause by trying to assume universality
e.g. fight or flight research – biological research uses male animals to avoid hormonal
changes due to ovulation.
Early research assumed males and females responded to threatening situations with
fight or flight.
Can prompt more research e.g. Taylor
Taylor et al.: not true – tend and befriend – love hormone oxytocin more plentiful in
females, women respond to stress by increasing its production --> tend and befriend,
looking after others.
Misrepresentation of females and males e.g. attachment – emotional role provided
solely by mothers, research on fathers show they can do this too
Androcentrism
Alpha and beta are consequences of androcentrism
Male-dominated e.g. APA’s list of 100 most influential psychologists of the 20 th century
included 6 women – produced by males, for males, about males.
Female behaviour has been ignored, misunderstood and pathologised, subjected to
category of premenstrual syndrome e.g. medicalising female emotions e.g. anger by
explaining these in hormonal terms.
Male anger, on the other hand, is often seen as a rational response to external
pressures (Brescoll and Uhlmann).
Evaluation
Biological vs social explanations
o Gender differences often presented as fixed and enduring when they are
not
o Maccoby and Jacklin: several studies, concluded girls have superior verbal
ability and boys better spatial
o Suggested these differences are ‘hardwired’ into the brain before birth
o Widely reported, seen as facts
o Joel et al.: used brain scanning, found no such differences in brain
structure or processing
o M&J may have been publicised as it fitted existing stereotypes of girls as
‘speakers’ and boys as ‘doers’
o Should be wary – findings may be explained by social stereotypes not
biological facts
, COUNTERPOINT
o Doesn’t mean we should avoid studying possible gender differences in the
brain
o Ingalhalikar et al: idea that females are better at multitasking as they
have better connected hemispheres may have biological truth to it
o Harasty: females have larger Broca’s areas
o Women’s brains may have better connections between hemispheres
o So may be biological differences but should be careful in exaggerating
their effect on behaviour
o More research needed
Increasing value of women
o Discussion about gender bias in research --> nowadays look to reduce it
and increase value of women in society
o Cornwell: females better at learning as more attentive and organised –
positive attributes of women
o Males and females do possess differences
o Can develop theories emphasising important of women
o Overcome sexist attitudes and gender bias in research publications
Sexism in research
o Gender bias promotes sexism in research
o Women underrepresented in university departments esp. in science
o Psychology’s undergraduate intake is mainly female but psychology
lecturers more likely to be male (Murphy et al.)
o More likely that research is conducted by males – may disadvantage
female ppts e.g. placed in inequitable relationships with predominantly
male researchers, female concerns not reflected in research qs
o E.g. male researcher may expect females to be irrational and unable to
complete complex tasks – negatively label, expectations may mean
female ppts underperform in research studies
o Institutional structures and psychological methods may produce gender-
biased findings
Gender-biased research
o Research challenging gender biases may not be published
o Formanowicz et al.: analysed over 1000 articles relating to gender bias,
published over 8 years
o Research on gender bias funded less often and is published by less
prestigious journals
o So fewer scholars were aware of it or applied it in their work
o Researchers argued that this still held true when gender bias was
compared to other kinds of bias e.g. ethnic + when other factors were
controlled e.g. author’s gender and methodology used
o Gender bias not taken as seriously as other kinds of bias
Real-life implications
o Creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour
o Fails to challenge stereotypes
o Validates discriminatory practices
