Essay Plans
Issues & Debates
Paper 3 - Section A
,Gender bias
Discuss gender bias in psychology. Refer to examples of alpha / beta bias (16)
Discuss how gender bias has been presented in psychology (16)
Why is gender bias a problem for psychology as a discipline? Discuss with reference
to two topics yous have studies (16)
(some essays will ask to discuss were some will ask for just the negatives)
ALWAYS USE EXAMPLES
Para 1 → Outline: gender bias / androcentrism / Alpha / Beta (AO1)
● Gender bias → the differential treatment or representation of men and women
based on stereotypes rather than real differences
● Androcentrism → the acknowledgement research is centred or focused on men,
often to the neglect or exclusion of women, can result in alpha / beta bias
● Universality → the aim is to develop theories that apply to all people, that may
include real differences
● Alpha → differences between M/F are exaggerated, devalues one gender as a result
● E.g Freud’s view of women being incomplete men / femininity as failed masculinity
● Beta → theories ignore / minimise differences in M/F, what’s true for men is for women
● E.g Assuming findings from male studies (Asch / Zimbardo) can be applied to women
● E.g Biopsychology - research into ForF response, found women tend and befriend
Evaluation: implications of biassed research (AO3)
● Gender biassed research creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour
● They allow discriminatory views / practices to take place
● Results have a damaging effects on women / makes them feel inferior
● May become depressed as feel looked down upon due to biological differences
● Gender bias can affect how women go about their day
● E.g research providing scientific justification for why employers can deny women
● opportunities in workplaces
● Suggests gender bias research has real life implications
Evaluation: bias in research methods (AO3)
● Psychological theories show gender bias as methods used are biassed
● Feminists argue lab experiments disadvantage women
● Findings in controlled labs tell us little about experience of women outside the lab
● E.g meta analysis by Eagly & Johnson showed leadership styles for women were
judged more similar to men in a real life setting than in a lab setting
● Also Rosenthal found that male experimenters are more pleasant to female
● Subsequently they perform better / male participants appear to perform less well
● Also fewer women are appointed at senior research positions means that female
concerns are less likely to be reflected in the experimental questions.
● Suggests issues with how data is collected that creates a false picture of differences
,Evaluation: assumptions need to be challenged (AO3)
● Gender bias remains unchallenged in many theories
● Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy / males as the ones
who compete to be chosen - women are coy / males as aggressive as
● However, this view has been challenged as it’s been found women are equally
competitive when needed
● DNA evidence supports the idea it’s a good adaptive strategy for females to mate
with more than one man, this puts females in competition with other females
Evaluation: feminist psychology (AO3)
● FP agree there are biologically based sex differences but socially determined
stereotypes are far greater contributions to perceived differences
● A way to redress the balance is to show evidence women may be ‘inferior’ to
provide them with greater support
● Eagly claimed women might be less effective leaders than men
● This knowledge should be used to develop suitable training to help women
● Shows how FP seeks to understand behaviour in terms of social processes and thus
find a way to greater equality
Evaluation: avoiding beta bias (AO3)
● Equal treatment for M/F (beta bias) has + / - consequences for women e.g equal pay
● Arguing for equality in M/F may draw attention away from women's needs
● In society where a group has power, neutral actions end up benefiting the powerful
● E.g equal mat/paternity leave undervalues biological demands on a woman
(pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding) - thus disadvantaging a woman
● Suggest we should avoid beta bias so significant differences are accounted for
How to reduce culture bias
● Don’t generalise findings to cultures not represented in the findings
● Use researchers native to the culture being investigated
● Carry out cross-cultural research
● Don’t assume universal norms
, Culture bias
Discuss culture bias in psychology (16)
Para 1 → Outline: culture bias (AO1)
● Universality → theories apply to all regardless of culture (many studies ignore this)
● Culture bias → inherent prejudice towards Western culture
● Ethnocentrism → judging a culture by the standards / values of one's own culture
● Cultural relativism → can only study norms / values of a culture in its cultural context
● Imposed etic → imposing your cultural values on another group e.g strange situation
● Etic → Studying behaviour across many cultures to find universal human behaviours
● Emic → Studying cultures in isolation by identifying culture specific behaviours
Para 2 → Evaluation: evident in most studies - why is this a problem (AO3)
● Most influential studies in psychology are culturally biassed e.g social influence
● E.g Asch / Milgram's studies were conducted with US p’s only (most white / MC)
● Replicates of these studies in different countries = different results
● Suggest our understanding should only be applied to certain cultures
● There is a big difference in individualist and collectivist cultures
● We can’t say we’ve found a ‘universal’ behaviour if we’ve not looked cross culturally
Para 3 → Evaluation: bias in RM - consequences of this (AO3)
● Smith and Bond surveyed a European textbook and found 66% of studies were
American, 32% European and 2% from elsewhere
● Sears found 82% of studies used undergrad p’s and 51% were psychology students
● Studies conclude findings that may not be valid within context of all cultures
● A danger of culturally biassed research is it helps reinforce stereotypes
● E.g the US army IQ test used American idea but was tested on everyone
● It showed European immigrants / Africans fell below White Americans on IQ
● The consequence was enforcing stereotypes on certain ethnic groups and their IQ
Para 4 → Evaluation: can we overcome cultural bias - worldwide community (AO3)
● Acknowledgement of cultural bias is essential
● Increased dialogue / conferences / travel has increased cultural understanding
● Creates a worldwide psychological community / helps reduce cultural bias
● More awareness of psychologists / exchange of ideas around the world - may help
reduce ethnocentrism
● Eg David Buss in his study of relationships was able to study 37 cultures
● However we all come from a cultural perspective - so we can never entirely avoid
being ethnocentric (seeing things from our own cultural point of view)
Para 5 → Evaluation: issues with cultural relativism (AO3)
● Psychologists are interested in universals
● If everything can only be understood in its own cultural context, comparisons and
universals will be impossible to find
● Interactional synchrony is viewed as a universal, Van Ijzendoorn found that ‘secure’
attachment type was in the majority across all cultures
● Ekman's understanding of facial emotions was also universally recognisable
Issues & Debates
Paper 3 - Section A
,Gender bias
Discuss gender bias in psychology. Refer to examples of alpha / beta bias (16)
Discuss how gender bias has been presented in psychology (16)
Why is gender bias a problem for psychology as a discipline? Discuss with reference
to two topics yous have studies (16)
(some essays will ask to discuss were some will ask for just the negatives)
ALWAYS USE EXAMPLES
Para 1 → Outline: gender bias / androcentrism / Alpha / Beta (AO1)
● Gender bias → the differential treatment or representation of men and women
based on stereotypes rather than real differences
● Androcentrism → the acknowledgement research is centred or focused on men,
often to the neglect or exclusion of women, can result in alpha / beta bias
● Universality → the aim is to develop theories that apply to all people, that may
include real differences
● Alpha → differences between M/F are exaggerated, devalues one gender as a result
● E.g Freud’s view of women being incomplete men / femininity as failed masculinity
● Beta → theories ignore / minimise differences in M/F, what’s true for men is for women
● E.g Assuming findings from male studies (Asch / Zimbardo) can be applied to women
● E.g Biopsychology - research into ForF response, found women tend and befriend
Evaluation: implications of biassed research (AO3)
● Gender biassed research creates misleading assumptions about female behaviour
● They allow discriminatory views / practices to take place
● Results have a damaging effects on women / makes them feel inferior
● May become depressed as feel looked down upon due to biological differences
● Gender bias can affect how women go about their day
● E.g research providing scientific justification for why employers can deny women
● opportunities in workplaces
● Suggests gender bias research has real life implications
Evaluation: bias in research methods (AO3)
● Psychological theories show gender bias as methods used are biassed
● Feminists argue lab experiments disadvantage women
● Findings in controlled labs tell us little about experience of women outside the lab
● E.g meta analysis by Eagly & Johnson showed leadership styles for women were
judged more similar to men in a real life setting than in a lab setting
● Also Rosenthal found that male experimenters are more pleasant to female
● Subsequently they perform better / male participants appear to perform less well
● Also fewer women are appointed at senior research positions means that female
concerns are less likely to be reflected in the experimental questions.
● Suggests issues with how data is collected that creates a false picture of differences
,Evaluation: assumptions need to be challenged (AO3)
● Gender bias remains unchallenged in many theories
● Darwin’s theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy / males as the ones
who compete to be chosen - women are coy / males as aggressive as
● However, this view has been challenged as it’s been found women are equally
competitive when needed
● DNA evidence supports the idea it’s a good adaptive strategy for females to mate
with more than one man, this puts females in competition with other females
Evaluation: feminist psychology (AO3)
● FP agree there are biologically based sex differences but socially determined
stereotypes are far greater contributions to perceived differences
● A way to redress the balance is to show evidence women may be ‘inferior’ to
provide them with greater support
● Eagly claimed women might be less effective leaders than men
● This knowledge should be used to develop suitable training to help women
● Shows how FP seeks to understand behaviour in terms of social processes and thus
find a way to greater equality
Evaluation: avoiding beta bias (AO3)
● Equal treatment for M/F (beta bias) has + / - consequences for women e.g equal pay
● Arguing for equality in M/F may draw attention away from women's needs
● In society where a group has power, neutral actions end up benefiting the powerful
● E.g equal mat/paternity leave undervalues biological demands on a woman
(pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding) - thus disadvantaging a woman
● Suggest we should avoid beta bias so significant differences are accounted for
How to reduce culture bias
● Don’t generalise findings to cultures not represented in the findings
● Use researchers native to the culture being investigated
● Carry out cross-cultural research
● Don’t assume universal norms
, Culture bias
Discuss culture bias in psychology (16)
Para 1 → Outline: culture bias (AO1)
● Universality → theories apply to all regardless of culture (many studies ignore this)
● Culture bias → inherent prejudice towards Western culture
● Ethnocentrism → judging a culture by the standards / values of one's own culture
● Cultural relativism → can only study norms / values of a culture in its cultural context
● Imposed etic → imposing your cultural values on another group e.g strange situation
● Etic → Studying behaviour across many cultures to find universal human behaviours
● Emic → Studying cultures in isolation by identifying culture specific behaviours
Para 2 → Evaluation: evident in most studies - why is this a problem (AO3)
● Most influential studies in psychology are culturally biassed e.g social influence
● E.g Asch / Milgram's studies were conducted with US p’s only (most white / MC)
● Replicates of these studies in different countries = different results
● Suggest our understanding should only be applied to certain cultures
● There is a big difference in individualist and collectivist cultures
● We can’t say we’ve found a ‘universal’ behaviour if we’ve not looked cross culturally
Para 3 → Evaluation: bias in RM - consequences of this (AO3)
● Smith and Bond surveyed a European textbook and found 66% of studies were
American, 32% European and 2% from elsewhere
● Sears found 82% of studies used undergrad p’s and 51% were psychology students
● Studies conclude findings that may not be valid within context of all cultures
● A danger of culturally biassed research is it helps reinforce stereotypes
● E.g the US army IQ test used American idea but was tested on everyone
● It showed European immigrants / Africans fell below White Americans on IQ
● The consequence was enforcing stereotypes on certain ethnic groups and their IQ
Para 4 → Evaluation: can we overcome cultural bias - worldwide community (AO3)
● Acknowledgement of cultural bias is essential
● Increased dialogue / conferences / travel has increased cultural understanding
● Creates a worldwide psychological community / helps reduce cultural bias
● More awareness of psychologists / exchange of ideas around the world - may help
reduce ethnocentrism
● Eg David Buss in his study of relationships was able to study 37 cultures
● However we all come from a cultural perspective - so we can never entirely avoid
being ethnocentric (seeing things from our own cultural point of view)
Para 5 → Evaluation: issues with cultural relativism (AO3)
● Psychologists are interested in universals
● If everything can only be understood in its own cultural context, comparisons and
universals will be impossible to find
● Interactional synchrony is viewed as a universal, Van Ijzendoorn found that ‘secure’
attachment type was in the majority across all cultures
● Ekman's understanding of facial emotions was also universally recognisable
