Psychological research Essay

One of the main criticisms that have been levelled against psychology is that it does not produce objective, value-free science. The assumption here, of course, is that an absolute ‘truth’ actually exists and that psychologists should be pursuing it with vigour. The natural scientists such as biologists and chemists firmly believe in this positivist stance that an absolute truth exists and denial of this must weaken any science and scientist that ignores it. The importance of this question is central to the nature of bias in research because if a value-free science can be achieved, then, psychology should be able to embrace this and eradicate bias. However, the very real possibility that there is no such thing as a totally value-free knowledge (i.e. one without prejudice or personal bias) means that gender bias as well as cultural and other biases will be impossible to remove, which is not to say that psychologists condone such practice, only the realisation that value-free knowledge represents a ‘holy grail’.  Psychology before the 1970s was riddled with gender biases. Early male psychologists such as Stanley Hall claimed that women should not be allowed into higher education because education increases the blood flow to the brain and away from the uterus. With the rise of the feminist movement in the 1970s feminist psychologist began to challenge limiting and demeaning views of women. The classic paper written in 1971 by feminist psychologists Naomi Weisttein was a scathing attack on psychology’s theories about women. Psychology she said portrays women as inconsistent, emotionally unstable and intuitive rather than intelligent. In short the list adds up to a typical minority group stereotype of inferitory. She pointed out that these kind of psychological theories were used to keep women out of education and professional occupations, to confine women to the kitchen, the bedroom and the nursery, inferior to men in all aspects. Research examples of gender bias in psychology can be found where research only uses male participants and generalises results to women without question. This type of research makes it unclear as to whether findings for men are equally same to women. If women behaviour differs from men’s, the former is often judged to be pathologically, abnormal or deficient in some way (sexism). This is because men’s behaviour is taken (implicitly or explicitly) as the ‘standard’ or norm against which women’s behaviour is compared (andocentric – male centeredness, or the masculinity bias).  Psychological explanations of behaviour tend to emphasise biological (and other internal) causes as opposed to social (and other external) causes. This emphasis on internal causes is called individualism. This gives (and reinforces) the impression that psychological sex differences are inevitable and unchangeable. In turn this reinforces widely held stereotypes and women and men, contributing to the oppression of women (another example of sexism) Many feminist psychologists argue that scientific method is gender bias. For example, Nicolson (1995) identifies 2 major problems associated with the ‘objective’ study of behaviour for how claims are made about women and gender differences.  a) Experimental environment takes the individual ‘subjects’ behaviour, as opposed to the ‘subject’ herself. This ignores the behaviour’s meaning, including its social, personal and cultural contexts.  b) Experimental psychology takes place in a very specific context, which typically works to women’s disadvantage (eagly, 1987). In an experiment a women becomes anonymous. She is put in a strange environment and expected to respond to the needs of (invariably) a male experimenter, who is in charge of the situation. How does gender bias help  According to Kitzinger (1998) questions about sex differences (and similarities) aren’t just scientific questions they are also political.  Answers to some of these questions have been used to keep women out of universities, or to put them in mental hospitals. Others have been used to encourage women to go to assertiveness training courses, or to argue that women should have all the rights and opportunities as men. In other words science of sex differences research is always used for political reasons.  According to Gilligan (1993) at the core of her work on moral development in women and girls were the realisations that within psychology values were taken as facts. Psychologists have a responsibility to make their values explicit about important social and political issues. Failure to do so may contribute to prejudice, discrimination and oppression. Alpha bias  According to Travis, the belief that man is the norm and women is the opposite, lesser or deficient (the problem) constitutes one of the 3 alternative views regarding the mismeasure of women.  Alpha bias underlines the enormous self-help industry. Women consume many books advising on beauty, independence and so on†¦Men being ‘normal’ feel no need to correspond in the same way.  Examples of alpha bias in research  Wilison (1994) maintains that the reason 95 % of bank managers, professors etc†¦ in Britain are men is that men are more ‘competitive’ and because dominance is innate in a man. Wilson also argues that women in academic jobs are less productive than men ‘objectively speaking, women may already be over promoted’. Women who do achieve promotion to top management positions ‘may have brains that are ‘masculinised’.  The research cited by Wilson to support these claims comes partly from the psychometric testing industries. These provide ‘scientific’ evidence of women’s inadequacies, such as (compared to men) their ‘lack of mathematical and spatial abilities’. Even if women are considered to have the abilities to perform well in professional jobs, Wilson believes they have personality deficits (especially low self esteem and a lack of assertiveness) which impede performance.