Specification: Gender in Psychology – universality and bias. Gender bias, including androcentrism and alpha and beta bias.
Gender bias in Psychology
The term bias is used to suggest that a person’s views are distorted in some way, and in psychology, there is evidence that gender is presented in a biased way. This bias leads to differential treatment of males and females, based on stereotypes and not real differences.
For example, Freud argued that ‘anatomy is destiny’, meaning that there are genuine psychological differences between men and women because of their physiological differences. For instance, he claimed that young girls suffer from ‘penis envy’ and viewed femininity as a failed form of masculinity.
The difficulty lies in distinguishing “real” from culturally created gender differences. Evidence suggests that there are a small number of real gender differences, confirmed through cross-cultural studies. For example, in a review of the research on sex differences, Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) concluded that there were only four differences between boys and girls:
· Girls have greater verbal ability.
· Boys have greater visual and spatial abilities.
· Boys have greater arithmetical ability, which is a difference that only appears at adolescence.
· Girls are less aggressive than boys.
Androcentrism
Androcentrism means being centred on, or dominated by, males or the male viewpoint. This can be conscious (the individual knows they are behaving this way) or unconscious. In the past, most psychologists were male, and the theories they produced tended to represent a male view of the world. Hare-Mustin and Marecek (1988) argued for there being two types of gender bias: alpha and beta bias.
Alpha bias
Alpha bias refers to theories which exaggerate the differences between males and females. For example, in his psychoanalytic approach, Freud argued that because girls do not suffer the same oedipal conflict as boys, they do not identify with their mothers as strongly as boys identify with their fathers, and so develop weaker superegos.
The evolutionary approach in psychology has also been criticised for its alpha bias. This is because this approach suggests that evolutionary processes in the development of the human species explain why men tend to be dominant, why women have more parental investment in their offspring, and why men are more likely to commit adultery. However, society has changed considerably over recent years, and it is argued that the evolutionary perspective should not be used to justify gender differences.
Beta bias
Beta bias theories have traditionally ignored or minimised sex differences. These theories often assume that the findings from males can apply equally to females.
For example, Kohlberg’s stage theory of moral development was based on extensive interviews that he conducted with boys aged 10-16. The same all-male sample was then re-interviewed at intervals of 3-4 years over a 20- year period. His classification system is based on a morality of justice and some researchers, such as Carol Gilligan (1982), have found that women tend to be more focused on relationships when making moral decisions and therefore often appear to be at a lower level of moral reasoning when using Kohlberg’s system. Therefore, Kohlberg’s approach meant that a real difference was ignored.
There is also evidence of beta bias in psychological research. Male and female participants are used in most studies, but there usually is no attempt to analyse the data to see whether there are significant sex differences. Where differences are found, it may be possible that these occur because researchers ignore the differential treatment of participants. For example, Rosenthal (1966) reported that male experimenters were more pleasant, friendly, honest, and encouraging with female participants than with male participants. This led Rosenthal to conclude: “Male and female subjects may, psychologically, simply not be in the same experiment at all.”
Even some animal research can be argued to suffer from beta bias. For example, biological research into the fight-or-flight response has often been carried out with male animals because they have fewer variations in hormones than females. It was assumed that this would not be a problem as the fight-or-flight response would be the same for both. However, later stress research by Taylor et al. (2000) has challenged this view by providing evidence that females produce a tend-and-befriend response. The beta-bias in the earlier animal studies meant that for a long time, the stress response was not fully understood, and a real difference was ignored.
The result of beta bias in psychological research is that we end up with a view of human nature that is supposed to apply to men and women alike, but in fact, has a male or androcentric bias. For example, Asch’s (1951; 1955) conformity studies involved all male participants, as did many of the other conformity studies (e.g., Perrin & Spencer, 1980) and it was just assumed that females would respond in the same way.
Evaluation
Unfortunately, issues of gender bias often go unchallenged. For example, Darwin’s established theory of sexual selection suggests that women are selective (choosy) in terms of mate selection. These views have only recently been challenged by DNA evidence suggesting that women are equally as competitive as men when the need arises.
By developing a greater understanding of gender bias, psychologists have put forward several solutions. For example, some psychologists attempt to build theories that emphasise the importance or value of women. Cornwell et al. (2013) noted that females are better at learning, as they are more attentive and organised, thus emphasising both the value of and the positive attributes of women. As a result, this type of research helps to reduce or challenge gender stereotypes, which is essential in reducing gender bias.
Another way to reduce gender bias is to take a feminist approach that attempts to restore the imbalance in both psychological theories and research. For example, feminist psychology accepts that there are biological differences between males and females: Research by Eagly (1978) claims that females are less effective leaders than males. However, the purpose of Eagly’s claim is to help researchers develop training programmes aimed at increasing the number of female leaders in the real world.
Worrell (1992) also suggested a number of research criteria that are particularly important to ensure research investigations that are not gender-biased: using alternative methods of inquiry to explore the personal lives of women; considering women in the natural settings in which they function; collaborating with research participants to explore personally relevant variables and studying diverse samples (women who vary by age, socio-economic class, partner preference, minority or ethnic group).
As society has changed and females have progressed further in academic disciplines such as psychology, there have been changes, both in the research methodology used and in the earlier theories. As previously explained, Carol Gilligan (a student of Kohlberg’s) proposed that women have a different sense of moral understanding from men and compiled her own stage theory of moral understanding. Her approach showed that men and women are different, but neither kind of moral reasoning (justice focus or care focus) is better, they are just different.
It is also important to remember that sometimes the gender bias can work against males as well as females, as sometimes alpha bias theories heighten the value of women. For example, Chodorow (1978) viewed women as more relational and caring. Another example is that women are more likely to be diagnosed with depression and given treatment than males. This may be because women are more likely to suffer from depression, or it could be that the diagnostic system may be biased towards finding depression among women. The expectation that males should be able to ‘pull themselves together’ may highlight an issue with the diagnostic systems for mental disorders.
Possible exam questions
Briefly explain what is meant by the term ‘gender bias’ in psychology. (2 marks)
Outline how androcentrism has affected psychological research. (3 marks)
Explain the difference between alpha and beta bias. (4 marks)
Discuss gender bias in Psychology. (16 marks)
Many social psychology experiments (e.g. Asch, Zimbardo and Milgram) used male-only samples. Using your knowledge of gender bias, explain the issue of gender bias in psychological research. (16 marks)
