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Summary Psychology : Issues & Debates Revision Notes AQA
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Psychology : Issues & Debates Revision Notes AQA
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𝓲𝓼𝓼𝓾𝓮𝓼 & 𝓭𝓮𝓫𝓪𝓽𝓮𝓼gender & culture: gender bias
the debate
g e n d e r b i a s : psychological research/theory may offer a view that does not
represent the experience & behaviour of both men & women (usually solely men)
the issue
universality & bias
→ universality: any underlying characteristic of human beings that can be applied
to all
→ gender bias & culture bias threaten universality of findings
→ psychologists seek universality but bias may be inevitable (as psychologists
are products of their time/place)
alpha bias
→ research that focuses on differences between men & women, thus tends to
exaggerate these differences
→ presented as inevitable, tends to devalue females
→ eg:
- Freud: girls have weaker identification with same-sex parent so weaker
conscience
- Chodorow: boys lack connectedness to mother so less empathy
beta bias
→ research that focuses on similarities between men & women, thus tends to
underestimate difference
→ eg:
- fight or flight response based on mal e animals & assumed to be universal;
Taylor et al. found tend & befriend to be more common in females
androcentrism
→ male-centred, when ‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to male standard
→ leads to alpha or beta bias. normal behaviour is judged from the male
standard
→ eg
- Brescoll & Uhlmann: female aggression explained by PMS, male anger seen
as rational
, evaluation
- biological vs social explanations
→ one limitation is gender differences are often presented as fixed & enduring (ie alpha bias) when
they’re not
→ Maccoby & Jacklin: social stereotypes (girls have better verbal ability, boys have better spatial
ability) presented as facts
→ this suggests that we should be wary of accepting research findings as biological facts when
they may be explained better as social stereotypes
- counterpoint
→ some stereotypes have biological basis; Ingalhalikar: female multitasking explained by better
hemispheric connections in women
- gender-biased research
→ Formanowicz: studies of gender bias published less than studies of other biases eg ethnicity as
taken less seriously
gender & culture: culture bias
c u l t u r e b i a s : tendency to interpret all phenomena through ‘lens’ of one’s
own culture, ignoring effects that cultural differences may have on behaviour
the issue
universality & bias
→ Henrich: 68% of research participants from US
→ Arnett: 80% of research participants are students
→ Henrich: WEIRD participants - westernised, educated people from
industrialised, rich democracies = people most likely to be studied
ethnocentrism
→ superiority of own cultural group, others seen as deficient
→ eg Takahashi: Ainsworth’s attachment types; baby left on own classed as
insecure led to Japanese babies classed as insecure but were raised differently
cultural relativism
→ the idea that norms, values ethics, & standards, can only be meaningful &
understood within specific social & cultural contexts
→ Berry: Etic (study behaviour from outside a culture). emic (study behaviour
from inside a culture)
→ imposed etic: Ainsworth’s Strange Situation, definitions of abnormality
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