Gender Bias in Psychology What differences between males

Gender Bias in Psychology • What differences between males and females do you know about? • Which of these do you think are stereotypes and which are absolute truth?

Gender Bias • What studies do you know about that have used only male participants? • What female traits may have been ignored in the findings of these studies?

• Gender bias has been found in both theory and research. • Theories can be designed to promote stereotypical views of women. • Research can be designed exaggerate differences or similarities. Therefore a female perspective is often seen as inferior or ignored all together. ww. psychlotron. or Gender bias in psychology

Gender bias • Alpha bias • Exaggerating the differences between men & women • Exaggerating the similarity between men & women • Often happens when findings obtained from men and applied to women without additional validation ww. psychlotron. or • Beta bias

Gender bias • Androcentrism ww. psychlotron. or • Similar idea to ethnocentrism • Taking male thinking/behaviour as normal, regarding female thinking/behaviour as deviant, inferior, abnormal, ‘other’ when it is different

Gender bias • Range of consequences including: • Avoiding gender bias does not mean pretending that men and women are the same ww. psychlotron. or • Scientifically misleading • Upholding stereotypical assumptions • Validating sex discrimination

Plenary questions • Milgram used an all male sample. If the results of the obedience study were generalised to females too what type of bias would this be? • Why is Freudian psychoanalytic theory of moral development androcentric? • Why do we need to be concerned about gender bias in Psychology?

Starter • Heinz stole a drug to help his wife. Is this right or wrong? Would both sexes see this the same way? • How might males and females react differently to a conflict situation at work? • Are gender differences due to nature, nurture or both?

Examples of gender bias • Based stages of moral development around male moral reasoning • Inappropriate generalisation to women (Alpha or Beta bias? ) • Claimed women generally reached lower level of development (Inappropriately applying male thinking to moral development making female thinking seem inferior – what is this called? ) ww. psychlotron. or • Kohlberg & moral development

Examples of gender bias • Highlighted bias inherent in Kohlberg’s work • Suggested women make moral decisions in a different way to men (care ethic vs. justice ethic) • Arguably also (alpha) biased, as M & F moral reasoning is more similar than her work suggests ww. psychlotron. or • Gilligan & moral development

Examples of gender bias • ‘Biology is destiny’ – women’s roles are prescribed & predetermined • ‘Penis envy’ – women are defined psychologically by the fact that they aren’t men • Alpha or Beta? ww. psychlotron. or • Freud & psychosexual development

Examples of gender bias • Reinforcing stereotypes e. g. of women’s moral inferiority • Treating deviations from traditional sex-role behaviour as pathological (career ambition = penis envy) • Alpha Bias and Androcentric (phallocentric) ww. psychlotron. or • Consequences of Freud’s ideas:

Examples of gender bias • Abnormal behaviour explained in terms of neurochemical/hormonal processes • Higher prevalence of depression in women explained in hormonal terms, not social/environmental (e. g. violence, unpaid labour, discrimination) • ‘Is it your hormones, love? ’ • FAE in Pre-menstrual tension ww. psychlotron. or • Biomedical theories of abnormality

Plenary questions • What was Gilligan’s criticism of Kholberg’s work and how could her research also be criticised? • Is there any way we could defend Freud’s work considering the era he was working in? • Why do think a male perspective is so often found in psychological research?

Key word check • • Androcentrism Alpha bias Beta bias Oedipus conflict Tend and befriend Fight or flight Justice vs Care ethic

Gender bias in research • Men predominate at senior researcher level • Research agenda follows male concerns, female concerns may be marginalised or ignored • See pg 77 – Feminist Psychology – How does Eagly (1978) suggest Feminist research could help ‘redress the balance’ ? ww. psychlotron. or • Institutional sexism

Gender bias in research • Women and men might respond differently to research situation • Women and men might be treated differently by researchers • Could create artificial differences or mask real ones. See pg 77 – How does Gilligan think we should view gender differences ? • What did Eagly and Johnson find about the drawbacks of lab research? ww. psychlotron. or • Use of standardised procedures in research studies

Gender bias in research • Publishing bias towards positive results • Research that finds gender differences more likely to get published than that which doesn’t • Exaggerates extent of gender differences • However - See pg 77 what concerns did Hare-Mustin and Maracek have about trying to treat males and females exactly the same? ww. psychlotron. or • Dissemination of research results

Addressing gender bias • Re-examining the ‘facts’ about gender • View of women as normal humans, not deficient men • Scepticism towards biological determinism • Research agenda focusing on womens’ concerns • A psychology for women, rather than a psychology of women ww. psychlotron. or • Feminist perspective

Gender bias essay plan Examples of Gender Bias Dealing with Gender Bias • Why is gender bias an issue? • What types of bias are there? • What examples of these types are there in research? • What are the overall consequences of bias for psychology ? • According to Feminists what are the problems within Institutions, methods of research, and publication of findings which need to be acknowledged? • In what ways can we look at apha and beta biases differently according to Feminists?