Gender Bias in psychology Gender bias Differential treatment or representation of men and women based on stereotypes rather than real differences. Androcentr ism Describes a theory based on male behaviour but applied to females and is therefore biased. At best, this leads to female behaviour being misunderstood, and at worst, pathologised (e.g. seen as mentally ill). Freud’s theory of psycho-sexual development is androcentric –‘normal’ behaviour is judged according to a male standard (meaning that female behaviour is often judged to be ‘abnormal or ‘deficient’ by comparison). Freud’s theories reinforce stereotypes of women as morally inferior to men and treats deviations from traditional sex-role behaviour as deficient. Alpha bias Theories that are alpha-biased exaggerate gender differences. Differences may heighten the value of women, or may devalue females in relation to males. Beta bias Theories that ignore or minimise gender differences and assume that what is true for one gender is true for all human kind. May occur when females not included as part of research process but assumed that research findings apply equally to both sexes, e.g. Kolhberg’s theory of moral development. Universali ty Any underlying characteristic of human beings that is capable of being applied to all, despite differences of experience and upbringing. Read pages 94-95 PHG Moral development – Kohlberg vs Gilligan 1. Kohlberg based his stages of moral development around male moral reasoning as he only tested male participants. He can be accused of inappropriate generalisation to women from just testing males. This minimised gender differences, which is an example of beta bias. He also claimed women generally reached lower levels of moral development, which is an example of androcentrism. 2. Gilligan’s theory is also gender biased as she assumes that women make moral decision in a different way from men. It is alpha biased because she may have exaggerated the differences, as moral reasoning in males and females is more similar than her work suggests. Tutor2u webinar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EYy6MlGAwI Tutor2U model answer explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKeIL94CQVo