Gender Bias in Psychology

Hare-Mustin and Maracek (1988) alpha and beta biases lead to erroneous identification of gender differences

• Alpha and Beta Biases

  • Alpha biases suggest real and enduring differences between men and women, e.g. Freudian psychosexual development theory

  • Beta biases suggest there are very little or no differences between the sexes

  • Psychology has an andocentric bias – both written and conducted by men

    • Kohlberg (1969) moral reasoning thesis completely based on men

    • Gillan and Attanucci (1988) male and female reasoning is very different, men focus on justice, women on care

• Biological Research

  • Stress responses were heavily beta biased

  • Taylor et al (2000) fight or flight vs. tend or befriend

• Biological Research

  • Stress responses were heavily beta biased

  • Taylor et al (2000) fight or flight vs. tend or befriend

• Real differences

  • Hormonal changes in women makes them hard test subjects

• Aspects of gender bias in psychological research

  • Gender imbalance in staff means men are more likely to be in higher research positions

  • Hypotheses promote stereotypes and psychologists are more likely to study participants of their own gender

  • Sampling methods are biased

  • Lab studies greatly underrepresent women

• Feminism

  • We must understand behaviour in terms of social construction and not biological differences

  • We must change views of the ‘facts of gender’

  • Some feminist psychologists go as far as to argue women are inferior as to give them more support from the psychological world

• Reverse Alpha bias

  • Emphasise gender differences

• Avoiding beta bias

  • Lack of focus on the real differences

  • E.g. women should have longer maternity due to changes in their bodies