Issues and Debates

Issues and debates

Gender and culture

The issue of gender bias

• Universality and bias- bias is research is inevitable, bias also undermines universality, that the conclusions drawn can be applied to everyone, anywhere, regardless of time or culture.

• Alpha bias- exaggerates differences (often men valued more than women). Freud’s psychosexual theory, during the phallic stage both genders develop desire for their opposite gender parent. Creates castration anxiety in the boy and is resolved when he identifies with his father. The girl’s eventual identification with same-gender parent is weaker, her superego is weak. Therefore, girls/women are morally inferior to boys/men.

Nancy Chodorow, suggested daughters and mothers have more connectedness than sons and mothers due to biological similarities. As a result, women develop better abilities to bond with others and empathise.

• Beta bias- underestimates differences. Assume research findings apply equally to men and women even when excluded from the research. 

Fight or flight- generally favoured males because biologically female behaviour is affected by hormonal changes due to ovulation.  Ignores any possible differences. Early research concluded both males and females respond to threatening situations with fight or flight. Later research showed women are more likely to tend and befriend in threatening situations in order to take care of themselves and their offspring. The love hormone oxytocin is more in women which is released during stressful situations making them more likely to tend and befriend than fight or flight.

• Androcentrism- male centred, when normal behaviour is judged according to male standard and female behaviour is often judged as abnormal or deficient. Psychology has traditionally been a subject produced by men leading to androcentric perspectives.  Women’s behaviour if considered has been misunderstood or seen as a sign of illness.

Evaluation

-biological vs social explanations- gender differences are often presented as fixed and enduring when they are not, we should be wary of accepting research findings as biological factors when they might be explained better as social stereotypes. However, this does not mean there are no possible gender differences. Research suggests women are better at multitasking than men. There may be biological differences but they should not be exaggerated.

-sexism in research- women remained underrepresented in university departments, especially science. It has been seen that research is more likely to be conducted by men which is a disadvantage to the women participating in the research. Institutional structures and methods of psychology may produce findings that are gender-biassed.

-gender-biassed research- research challenging gender biases may not be published. Research has shown over 1000 articles relating to gender bias have not been published in over 8 years.  Research on gender bias is funded less and published less by prestigious journals. This suggests gender bias may not be taken as seriously as forms of other bias.

The issue of culture bias

• Universality and bias- Henrich reviewed hundreds of studies leading psychology and found 68% of research participants came from the US, and 96% were from industrialised countries. Another research found 80% participants were undergraduates studying psychology.

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