Naciima Hassan

Discuss gender bias in psychology [16 marks]

Gender bias is the different treatment between men and women in psychological research. Due to
psychology historically being a male-dominated area, a majority of psychological research represents
a male point of view, this is known as androcentrism. Gender bias can come in two main forms alpha
and beta bias. Alpha bias is the tendency to exaggerate differences between the two genders. It is
either used to heighten or devalue women however the majority of the time it is used to devalue
women. An example of this is Freuds theory of psychosexual development. Freud claimed that
childrens superego or conscience develops when they identify with the same-sex parent. Girls do
not identify with their mother as strongly as boys identify with their fathers. As a result, Freud
argued that women are morally inferior because they didnt go through the Oedipus complex.
Whereas, beta bias is the tendency to minimise or ignore differences between the two genders. For
example, Kohlberg (1963) put forward a theory of moral development based mainly on studies of
moral dilemmas with males as the main actors and with males as participants. He claimed men
tended to be at a higher level of moral development than women. Kohlberg assumed that there
were minimal differences between men and women in terms of moral thinking (beta bias) and
therefore it would not matter if he used only male participants because this would still represent all
people. The outcome is a demonstration of gender difference. However, Kohlbergs claim that men
were morally superior to women was disputed by Gilligan (1977). She argued that Kohlberg had
focused too much on the morality of justice, whereas girls develop the morality of care. Kohlbergs
study was beta bias he ignored the differences between the two genders leading women to look
worse off within the morality test.

The implications of gender bias are vast one example is intelligence testing (IQ) which is a male
dominate instrument of intelligence. It was created by Alfred Binet, a man, who included questions
specifically targeting male knowledge thus making women look less intelligent than men. This limits
women in the workplace as most jobs look at IQ tests, in comparison to their male counterpart
women are less likely to get the job due to them looking more inferior. IQ tests are capping women
and placing a restriction upon them they need to be redressed in order to give a fair chance to
women. IQs can be an androcentric instrument that can be used to argue the inferiority of women.
Gender bias has serious implications for the prospects of women.

Traditional psychology has also sought to explain behaviour in terms of internal causes, such as
biological sex differences. This has led to inevitable gender biases in psychological theories. The
alternative approach aim. Feminist psychologists argue that there may be real sex differences but
socially determined stereotypes make a far greater contribution to perceive differences. Feminist
psychology is a branch of psychology that aims to redress the imbalances in psychology. One way to
redress the balance is to 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. A further way to redress the
balance is to become aware of how androcentric theories inevitably lead to the view that female
behaviour is abnormal. Bem (1994) argued that in a male-centred world, female differences are
transformed into female disadvantages. Tavris (1993) states it becomes normal for women to feel
abnormal. Women should be viewed as normal human beings and not deficient men. Overall,
feminist psychology is for women rather than a psychology of women.

However, some psychologists claim that males and females are not significantly different and that it
is the research methodology used in gender research which is biased, resulting in males and females
appearing different when they are not. This is important because it could reduce the validity of
gender theories and research, resulting in an alpha bias. However, this can also result in a beta bias,
Naciima Hassan

which on the one hand promotes equal treatment but on the other also draws attention away from
important differences between males and females. There should be no doubt that gender bias

Overall, gender bias is prevalent both within psychology and the wider world. Gender bias caps
women within the workplace due to the IQ test being designed for men. Beta bias is more prevalent
due to the absence of women within psychology. There should be more attention to female
perspectives during the design process of psychological tests. There should also be positive
discrimination, present research that highlights the strength of women over men, reversing alpha
bias.