There are many different types of gender bias that has been identified within psychology. The main two are: Alpha bias – this type of bias exaggerates the differences in males and females Beta bias – this minimises the differences between men and women These biases exist because of androcentric views being seen as the standard or the norm. If women display different behaviour to the norm (men) then it is seen as inferior (and sometimes a diviation from ideal mental health). Kohlberg’s theory of moral development (1963).
A series of moral dilemmas were presented to children who had to judge them and say how they would respond. They were then interviewed to determine the reasoning behind their judgments of each scenario. He then created stages of moral development. Theses stages were based around male moral reasoning. The different types of bias present in this theory are beta bias, because he then generalised this to women, which was inappropriately done, as men and women make moral decision differently (this is intuitively correct). Also androcentrism, he claimed that women generally reached a lower level of development than men.
As an extension to this Gilligan (1982) highlighted the bias that was present within Kohlberg’s work. She suggested that women do make moral decisions in a different way to men, they think on a more emotional and caring level to men. Her work could be criticised as highlighting the difference too much, therefore it is still biased, just a very strong form of alpha bias. Another theory in psychology which is very strongly gender bias, is Freud and his theory of psychosexual development. This theory states that: Biology is destiny –men and women’s roles are prearranged and predetermined
Penis envy – women are defined psychologically by the fact that they aren’t men, hence they will then be envious of the males penis This theory completely reinforces the stereotype that women are inferior to men. If you go by this theory, any woman that is trying to better herself in work and move up the career ladder, is just doing this as a way of proving herself because she is envious she is not a male. This theory is very androcentric, taking males as the normal. This also links with the view of ideal mental health. There are three types of ideal mental health:
Ideal mental health for a human Ideal mental health for a male Ideal mental health for a female If you look at the criteria for these categories, then ideal mental health for a human and a male are very similar, and include lots of the same criteria. Meaning, already, that the female is considered as being mentally unstable. It is very difficult to find a theory or a piece of research that is not remotely gender bias in some aspect. Hence, psychologists should just accept this difference between males and females and highlight it. Not over-emphasise it but to at least acknowledge it.