AQA Psychology for A Level Year 2 Flashbook

S p e c S p o t l i g h t Book-link Y2/A Student Book Pages 94–95 Y2/A Revision Guide Pages 56–57 Gender and culture in psychology — universality and bias. Gender bias including androcentrism and alpha and beta bias. AO1 Gender and culture in psychology: Gender bias AO3 Psychologists seek universality but bias may be inevitable. Alpha bias — exaggerates differences, presented as natural and inevitable. Example = sociobiological theory, male sexual promiscuity is naturally selected. Beta bias — ignores or underestimates differences betweenmen and women. Example = fight or flight response — based on male animals, assumed as universal. Beta bias leads to androcentrism — non-male behaviour judged as abnormal. Gender bias in psychological research validates misleading stereotypes. Promotes sexism in research process — lack of female senior researchers. Reflexivity — embrace own biases as an important aspect of research process. Essentialist arguments are common — biased views presented as scientific fact (Walkerdine). Can help avoid gender bias — collaborative research in future (Worrell). 3 Topic 1: Issues and debaTes