AQA Psychology A-level Topic 8: Issues and Debates Notes from Pmt

Gender Bias in Psychology

Gender bias - The differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real difference.

Alpha Bias - A tendency to exaggerate differences between men and women, suggesting that there are real and enduring differences between the two sexes. The consequences are that theories devalue one gender in comparison to the other, but typically devalue women.

Examples of Alpha Bias

1. Psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour suggests that criminality occurs due to a deviant superego. According to Freud, since females do not experience castration anxiety, they are under less pressure and have less of a need to identify with the moral standards of their same-sex parent, as compared to boys. This suggests that females, in line with the psychodynamic approach, are less moral than males - an idea which has been refuted by Hoffman et al.
2. Wilson's sociobiological theory of relationship formation suggests that sexual promiscuity in males is genetically determined, whereas promiscuous females are going against their 'nature'. Females, from an evolutionary standpoint, need to be more selective when choosing their mates, due to having a limited supply of eggs and requiring more energy and effort to reproduce, compared to men. Therefore, such alpha bias may lead to prejudice and stereotyping of women who engage in these behaviours.
3. Historically, since the 1980s, schizophrenia has been diagnosed more frequently in men compared to women, whereas before this time there had been no significant differences. This is an example of alpha bias, according to Cotton et al, because women are more likely to be able to continue working, maintain good interpersonal relationships and show less distress than men. This means that the schizophrenic symptoms of women may be masked or not severe enough to merit a diagnosis.

Androcentrism - The consequence of beta bias and occurs when all behaviour is compared according to a 'male' standard, often to the neglect or exclusion of women.

Example of Androcentrism

PMS has been criticised by some as being a social construction, which trivialises female emotion, particularly anger. On the other hand, male anger is seen as a logical response to external pressures (Brescoll and Uhlman).

Androcentrism can result in people assuming that what is true for men is also true for women, thus minimising the differences between men and women. An example of beta bias is research on fight or flight, research is usually conducted with male animals as in females the variation in hormone levels would make research more difficult - it has been assumed that only male samples are needed as what is true for males is true for females, until Shelley Taylor 2000 challenged this, they provided evidence that females produce a tend and befriend respond at times of stress which is adaptive as it ensures the survival of the offspring. This beta bias meant that a real difference was ignored.

Beta bias - A tendency to ignore or minimise differences between men and women. Such theories tend to ignore questions about the lives of women, or insights derived from studies of men will apply equally well to women.

Examples of Beta Bias

1. Early research conducted into the fight or flight response exclusively used male lab mice because they experience fewer hormonal fluctuations and so changes in adrenaline, due to environmental stressors, could be more reliably measured. However, results from these studies were then generalised to females, ignoring differences between the two sexes (e.g. speed and extent of the fight or flight response).
2. Kohlberg's levels of moral reasoning theory was developed on the basis of studying groups of American males, who all answered questions based on moral dilemmas e.g. the Heinz dilemma. These results were then generalised to represent levels of moral reasoning for both men and women.

Universality - The aim to develop theories that apply to all people, which may include real differences. This describes any underlying characteristic of human behaviour which can be applied to all individuals, regardless of their differences. Bias, lack of validity and issues with reliability reduce the universality of psychological findings.

Evaluation of Gender Bias

• Feminist psychology = Feminist psychology argues that difference psychology arises from biological explanations of behaviour. The social constructionist approach aims to understand behaviour in terms of social processes. Feminist psychology argues that there are real differences but socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceived differences. Androcentrism can be countered by a feminist view and the balance can be readdressed. For example, Eagly (1978) acknowledged that women may be less effective leaders than men but this knowledge should be used to develop suitable training programmes and therefore create a future with more women leaders.
• Bias in research methods = If theories and studies are gender biased, the research may find differences between genders but it may not be the genders that differ but simply the methods used to test or observe them. For example, Rosenthal (1966) found that male experimenters are more pleasant and encouraging to female participants and subsequently they perform better in tasks/male participants appeared to perform less well. Secondly, fewer women being appointed at senior research positions means that female concerns are less likely to be reflected in the experimental questions.
• The laboratory experiment may also be an example of institutionalised sexism within psychology = Male researchers have the authority to deem women as "unreasonable, irrational and unable to complete complex tasks" (Nicolson, 1995). Eagly and Johnson noted that studies in real settings found women and men were judged as more similar in styles of leadership than in lab settings, hence having higher ecological validity.
• Reverse alpha bias describes the development of theories that show a greater emphasis on women = Research by Cornwell et al (2013) showed that women are better at learning because they are more attentive, flexible and organised. Such research challenges the stereotype that in any gender differences the male position must be better and challenges people's preconceptions.

Avoiding Beta Bias and Challenging Assumptions

• Avoiding a beta bias = Beta bias has allowed women greater access to educational and occupational opportunities. However Hare, Mustin and Marecek pointed out that arguing for equality draws attention away from women's special needs, for example equal parenting ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and the special needs of women. Therefore, this suggests that some elements of beta bias may actually disadvantage women.
• Assumptions need to be challenged = Gender bias remains unchallenged in many theories. Darwin's theory of sexual selection portrays women as choosy and males as the ones who compete to be chosen, arguing that women are coy and males as aggressive as they are in competition with other males. However, this view has been challenged as it has been found that women are equally competitive when needed. DNA evidence supports the idea that it is a good adaptive strategy for females to mate with more than one man and this puts females in competition with other females (Vernimmen, 2015)

Cultural Bias in Psychology

Culture - The rules, customs, morals and ways of interacting that bind together members of a society or some other collection of people.

Cultural bias - The tendency to judge all cultures and individuals in terms of your own cultural assumptions. This distorts or biases your judgements.

Cultural relativism - The view that behaviour, morals, standards and values cannot be judged properly unless they are viewed in the context of the culture in which they originate.

Example of Cultural Relativism

Milgram's study into obedience was originally conducted using 40 male American participants, but then also replicated using Spanish students (Miranda et al. found over 90% obedience rates in Spanish students) and Australian students (where only 16% of female participants continued to the highest voltage setting, as shown by Kilham and Mann). This suggests that Milgram's original results were specifically bound to American cultures.

Alpha bias - Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences lead psychologists to overlook universals.

Beta bias - Cultural relativism is often discussed in the context of defining mental disorder. Behaviours that are statistically infrequent in one culture may be more frequent in another, i.e. schizophrenia is claiming to hear voices but this experience is more common in African cultures, where hearing voices is a sign of spirituality and so individuals are more likely to openly report these experiences to their psychiatrist. By assuming the same rules universally we may diagnose some people as mentally ill but relative to the culture they may not be.

Alpha and Beta Bias in Cross-Cultural Research

Alpha bias - With regards to culture refers to the assumption that there are real and enduring differences between cultural groups. An example is the distinction that is often made between individualistic and collectivist cultures. We would expect individualistic cultures to be less conformist as they are less orientated towards group norms and value the needs of the group over the individual. For example, Takano and Osaka reviewed 15 studies that compared the US and Japan in terms of collectivist/individualism and found that 14 out of 15 studies did not support the common view about differences in conformity. This suggests that there is less of a collectivist/individualist divide in an increasingly global world.

Beta bias - Refers to theories that minimise or ignore cultural differences, They do this by assuming that all people are the same and therefore it is reasonable to use the same theories for different cultural groups. An example is IQ tests. Psychologists use IQ tests to study intelligence in many different cultures as they assume that their view of intelligence applies equally to all cultures. However this may not always be the case. Western societies see intelligence as something within the individual whereas in a collectivist culture intelligence is a functional relationship depending on shared information between the individual and society. The result is that non-western people may appear less intelligent. Such tests are described as taking an "imposed etic" approach, where a test is made in one group and then imposed on another. This approach studies behaviours outside a given group and behaviours which can be universally applied to all groups.

Ethnocentrism - An example of alpha bias and leads to beta bias. Seeing things from the point of view of ourselves and our social group. Evaluating other groups of people using the standards and customs of one's own culture. In its extreme form, ethnocentrism can lead to prejudice and discrimination against 'lesser' cultures.

Indigenous psychologies - A method of countering ethnocentrism, the development of different groups of theories in different countries.

Example of Ethnocentrism

Ainsworth's Strange Situation is an example of cultural relativism due to suggesting that a secure attachment was only characterised by moderate separation and stranger anxiety. Therefore, German mothers, whose children showed little separation and stranger anxiety (thus being insecure-avoidant according to Ainsworth's system), were deemed as cold and rejecting.

The emic-etic distinction - Emic approach is one that emphasises the distinction of uniqueness in every culture, problem with this is that findings are only significant for that culture. The "etic" approach seeks universal aspects of behaviour - one way to do this whilst still avoiding cultural bias is to use indigenous researchers in each cultural setting.

Evaluation of Cultural Bias

• Bias in research methods: Smith and Bond surveyed research in one European textbook on social psychology and found that 66% of the studies were American, 32% European and 2% from the rest of the world. A considerable amount of psychology is based on middle class academic young adults who are males. This suggests that there is almost an institutionalised cultural bias in psychology, as students would be learning about 'universal' behaviours that were demonstrated only in certain cultures.
• Consequences of cultural bias: The US army IQ test showed that European immigrants fell slightly below white Americans in terms of IQ. This data has a profound effect on attitudes held by Americans towards certain groups of people, leading to stereotyping and discrimination.
• Not all behaviours are affected by cultural bias: Although there may be differences in rates of obedience (Milgram) and conformity (Asch) between collectivist/Eastern and individualist/Western cultures, universal behaviours still exist. For example, Ekman et al.