Beta bias produces sex differences in research. Male and female participants are used in most studies but there is no attempt to analyse the data to see whether there are significant sex differences. These sex differences found maybe due to differential treatment of the participants. Rosenthal found that experimenters were more pleasant and friendly towards the female participants. Rosenthal concluded that male and female participants may psychologically simply not be in the same experiment.
Stage theories in psychology tend to have been founded on research done with men and then have their results generalised to women also. For example Levison’s Seasons of a Man’s Life. Levinson based his theory on research with 40 men. He attributed these seasons to women too.
In 1986 Levinson did research to develop the ‘Season’s of a Woman’s Life’. Levinson based this on research with 45 women over a period of years. Similarly Roberts and Newton (1987) reviewed work on this theme and whilst they found broad similarities between men and women, they found a key difference in the dreams and aspirations of men and women. Levinson finds what he calls ‘gender splitting’ whereby men have a unified vision of their future whilst women and ‘split’ between career and marriage. In a similar way, Roberts and Newton found that the family provides a supporting role for men but women actually construct their dreams around their relationships with their family. Therefore it could suggest alpha bias rather than beta bias.
Social influence studies have shown a gender bias through participants used. For example in Milgram’s study where is used 40 men aged 20 – 50. All of whom were from New Haven area, North America. They responded to an advert asking for participants for a research study into memory and learning at Yale Uni. Also Asch used groups of 17 men. Moscovici used groups of 6 women in his study.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development found that men tended to be at higher level of moral development than women, he assumed that there were minimal differences in terms of moral thinking (beta bias) therefore it wouldn’t have mattered if he had used male participants because they still represent everyone. Kohlberg’s claim of mens superiority to women has been disputed by Gilligan who said that Kohlberg has focused too much on mortality of justice rather than care. He says that boys develop mortality of justice and girls develop mortality of care.
Kohlberg’s theory is said to have an androcentric view in his theory of mortality, where it has a male bias and also in Asch’s conformity study where it was based largely on male conformity.
Women tend to conform more and men conform less when they think they are being observed. Eagly says that this difference is the result of the pressure the individual has to behave in ways that are viewed acceptable within traditional gender-role constraints. Baumeister and Sommer suggest that both sexes are motivated to be accepted by their groups. But men aim to be accepted by demonstrating independence and leadership qualities. Furthermore, people who volunteer for experiments are less authoritarian than those who don’t.
It could be that there was experimenter bias in these studies. For instance, Rosenthal observed more than 70% of male experimenters smiled when they gave instructions to female subjects; only 12% smiled at males. This could this have happened in Moscovici’s experiment.
Also Gender bias in diagnosis is a fundamental issue. There is the argument that there is gender bias in the DSM. For example, the DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa include an intense fear of gaining weight, a distorted self-perception of body image, refusal to maintain normal body weight and three consecutive months of amenorrhea. The criterion of amenorrhea has been subject to much criticism for the creation of a gender bias in diagnosis of the disorder. Russell suggests we solve this problem by altering the amenorrhea criterion to “an endocrine disorder which manifests itself clinical in amenorrhea, or in the case of male subjects, a loss of sexual interest and lack of potency.”
