Womens Studies 2310 August 31, 2010 Gender Bias in Psychological Research: In psychological research there is always a concern

with bias. Whether it is age, race, gender or even social class biases. While examining both issues of Psychology of Women Quarterly and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology I came across different types of biases in the method of psychological research. In the Psychology of Women Quarterly researchers are trying to explain why there is a gender role for specific jobs. Out of the 65 students at the Midwestern University that participated, only 43% were male. This leaves the majority 57% female, thereby making the research more oriented towards females. For a gender based study, there should be an equal amount of participants. The issue that I examined from the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology shows research that was done on groups of editors and editorial board members of personality and social psychology journals. Out of their total number of participants, 71% were male and rest female. Clearly, their research was base more on males. However, the researchers werent looking for any gender differences; they treated both males and females as equal professionals in the same field. This is unlike the previous journal, Psychology of Women Quarterly, that was looking at gender roles. When looking at the methods of just the research without showing some attention towards the actual subject, the research may look bias. In the issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly, there was a bias towards females in a gender related study. While in the issue of Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, although there were more male participants the

research wasnt relating gender to the subject. Of course, this brings about the question of why there were more males that participated. In research is there is always a concern about biasness. Should males and females be compared or treated as an equal unit?

Bibliography

Evans, Clifford D., and Amanda B. Diekman. "ON MOTIVATED ROLE SELECTION: GENDER BELIEFS, DISTANT GOALS, AND CAREER INTEREST." Psychology of Women Quarterly 33.2 (2009): 235-249. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Aug. 2010. Tracy, Jessica L., Richard W. Robins, and Jeffrey W. Sherman. "The Practice of Psychological Science: Searching for Cronbach's Two Streams in Social--Personality Psychology." Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 96.6 (2009): 1206-1225. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Aug. 2010.

Psychology of Women Quarterly

Evans, Clifford D., and Amanda B. Diekman. "ON MOTIVATED ROLE SELECTION: GENDER BELIEFS, DISTANT GOALS, AND CAREER INTEREST." Psychology of Women Quarterly 33.2 (2009): 235-249. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Aug. 2010.

1. a. Yes b. Both females and males (43% male) 2. a. Yes b. Predominantly Caucasian (91%) 3. a. Yes b. Exclusively Midwestern University students 4. a. No

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Tracy, Jessica L., Richard W. Robins, and Jeffrey W. Sherman. "The Practice of Psychological Science: Searching for Cronbach's Two Streams in Social--Personality Psychology." Journal of Personality & Social Psychology 96.6 (2009): 1206-1225. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Aug. 2010. 1. a. Yes. b. There were 71% males and 29% female. 2. a. No. 3. a. No. 4. No.