Gender Bias In Psychology

Alpha bias
1. assume there are real differences between men and women
2. example
  1. Freud's theory of psychosexual development is alpha-biased because he viewed femininity as failed masculinity
    1. Freud (1925) - "we must not allow ourselves to ... regard the two sexes as completely equal in position and worth"
    2. Freud believed that women's 'deficiency' is caused by the absence of a penis
      1. women are seen as being inferior to men because they are jealous of mens penises (penis envy)
        they cannot undergo the same Oedipus conflict as boys do (involves castration anxiety)
        because the superego develops from the Oedipus conflict, women must therefore be morally inferior
  2. Josselson (1988) - "Classical psychoanalytical theory is grounded in the genital inferiority of women and deduce their moral inferiority as well"
Beta bias
1. tend to ignore or minimise differences between men and women
2. example
  1. Kohlberg's theory of moral reasoning had an androcentric bias for 2 reasons
    1. dilemmas used to asses moral reasoning were based on a male perspective
    2. the developmental scale was based on research with males
    3. the theory was then applied to both men and women assuming that it had universal relevance
      1. unsurprisingly, Kohlberg found females did NOT reason at the same higher level that males did
        devalues female perspective
3. Androcentric bias
  1. theories and studies tend to be written/conducted by men
Dealing with gender bias
1. Feminist psychology
  1. takes the view that a necessity to any social change with respect to gender roles must be a revision of our 'facts' about gender
    1. facts perpetuate our beliefs about women
  2. aims to redress the imbalances in psychology
    1. one way to redress the balance
      1. use evidence that women may be inferior to provide women with greater support
        Eagly (1978) acknowledged that women may be less effective leaders than men but this knowledge should be used to develop suitable training programmes and therefore create a future with more women leaders
2. Reverse alpha bias
  1. develop theories which show the differences between men and women but that emphasise the value of women
    1. Gilligan's view - women are concerned with interpersonal relations whereas men are more concerned with justice and reason
3. Avoiding a beta bias
  1. beta bias has consequences for women
    1. however, equal treatment under the law has allowed women greater access to educational and occupational opportunities
  2. Hare-Mustin and Maracek - arguing for equality between men and women draws attention away from women's special needs and from differences in power between men and women
    1. in a society where one group holds most of the power, neutral actions end up benefiting the group with the power
      1. EG. equal parental leave ignores the biological demands of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, and the special needs of women, disadvantaging women

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Gender Bias In Psychology

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