Summary
Summary Issues and Debates - 16 Marker plans
- Course
- Institution
- Book
issues and debates 16 marker plans
[Show more]
Connected book
Book Title:
Author(s):
- Edition:
- ISBN:
- Edition:
Seller
Follow
saya1
Content preview
Discuss gender bias in psychology:A ● (**) Gender bias refers to the idea that psychological data have a bias towards one or other
O gender.
1 - When differences have not been considered properly, it leads to a biassed
:-
conclusion about gender
- Includes the different treatments of male and females as a result of stereotypes
● (*) Historically, Psychology has been mainly a male-dominated field, with research being
carried out by white middle-class men
- This means, psychological theories generally represent a male-viewpoint
- This is known as androcentrism, as research falls particularly in favour of men
There are two types of Gender bias:
● (*) Alpha bias:- Theories which exaggerate the differences between males and females
➔ Commonly used to undervalue one of the sexes (historically women)
➔ E.g., Freuds’ Women are less morally mature, because they have a less developed
superego
- Led to women being treated as second-class citizens
- Castration anxiety - Suggests women have penis envy in replacement to
castration anxiety
● (*) Beta bias:- Theories which ignore or minimise sex differences between males and
females
➔ Assumes all findings can be generalised and applied to them equally
➔ E.g., Milgram's obedience test - generalised levels of obedience to all genders
A (S) - Feminist psychology - agree that there are real Biologically based sex differences, but
O socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceived differences. This can
3 be acknowledged by the androcentric view held by Eagly
:- - Eagly - acknowledged that women might be less effective leaders than men, but this
knowledge should be used to develop suitable training programmes and therefore create
more female leaders
(S) - Beta bias has allowed women greater opportunities such as education. However, it can also be
a disadvantage as it draws away from the needs of women, for example, the biological need for
childbirth
(L) - Has had negative consequences to society (women) - it reinforces negative stereotypes,
especially around women and justifies their mistreatment
- This leads to discrimination
- Stereotypes against women is also political - women are kept out of work and
make-dominated universities, because of research theories such as Bowlby’s critical period
- Reinforces patriarchal norms
(L) - assumptions need to be challenged - Gender bias has not been challenged in many theories.
- E.g, Darwin's evolutionary theory of sexual selection portray women as choosy and males as
the ones competing to be chosen
- However, the research found that women also compete with other females and use a
strategy to mate with more than one man
, Discuss cultural bias in psychology:
A Culture is Values, beliefs and patterns of behaviour shared by a group of people
O ● Culture bias refers to the researchers judging other cultures from the researchers cultural
1 perspective
:-
- Judging people in terms of their own cultural assumptions
● Universality = When a theory can be applied to all people regardless of gender and culture
● Ethnocentrism = Seeing the world only from one’s own cultural perspective, and believing
that this one perspective is both normal and correct
● Eurocentrism = Form of ethnocentrism that focuses on western world viewpoint
● Emic - focuses on a single culture to understand it within a local context
● Etic - focus across multiple cultures in order to understand elements that apply across all
cultures
● Alpha and Beta bias (applied to culture) =
- Alpha = exaggerated cultural differences
➔ The assumption is made that collectivist cultures are far more confmists than
individualist cultures - However, Takano and Osaka - 14/15 studies did not
support that view
- Beta = minimise or ignoring cultural differences
➔ Heavily biassed towards white American soldiers, as they scored the highest
and African-Americans scored the lowest, making them seem less intelligent
Led to negative stereotypes against African-Americans
● Cultural relativism = The idea that behaviour can be properly understood only if the cultural
context is taken into consideration
A (S) - led to psychology becoming more inclusive - this is obtained through including all sub-groups
O for research in order to generalise
3 - E.g., BUSS’ study - they collected data from 37 different countries
:-
(S) - indigenous psychologies - used to counter ethnocentrism
- Through looking at an Indigenous perspective, psychologists can discover that not all white
European cultures are universally accepted
(L) - consequences of culture bias - American Army IQ test resulting in Stereotypes and hate
against a culture
(L) - psychology students - SEARS found that most psychology students were western and highly
academic youths - resulted in strongly biassed findings and difficult to generalise different cultural
groups that are not western (white)
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller saya1. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $6.73. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
73918 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now