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Psychology Paper 3 A* NOTES - Gender Bias,Culture Bias,Free will and Determinism,Free will,The Nature-Nurture Debate
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Psychology Paper 3 Notes Nathan MilletGender Bias
Gender Bias → The different 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 differences. The consequences are that theories devalue
one gender in comparison to the other, but typically devalue women.
Example: Psychodynamic explanations for offending behaviour suggests that criminality
occurs due to an abnormal 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.
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.
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.
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.
Example: 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, 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).
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:
+ Avoiding a beta bias = Beta bias has allowed women greater access to educational
and work opportunities. However Hare, 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.
+ 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
, Psychology Paper 3 Notes Nathan Millet
challenges the stereotype that in any gender differences, the male position must be better
and challenges people’s preconceptions.
— Assumptions need to be challenged = Gender bias remains unchallenged in many
theories. Darwin’s theory portrays women as choosy and males as the ones who compete
to be chosen, arguing that women are shy 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.
Culture Bias
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).
This suggests that Milgram’s original results were specifically bound to American cultures.
Cultural relativism can lead to an alpha bias, where the assumption of real differences
lead psychologists to overlook universals.
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.
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.
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.
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