PS204:Social Psychology

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PS204Social Psychology

• Monday 24th Feb, 2008
• Peter Hegarty
• P.hegarty_at_surrey.ac.uk

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• A man is out driving with his son when their car
  is hit in a head-on collision with a truck. The
  man is killed instantly and his son is rushed to
  hospital, critically injured. Given the level of
  the boys injuries, only the top surgeon in the
  hospital can save him. But when the boys
  unconscious body is revealed, the surgeon says I
  cant operate, he is my son!
• .

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• A man is out driving with his son when their car
  is hit in a head-on collision with a truck. The
  man is killed instantly and his son is rushed to
  hospital, critically injured. Given the level of
  the boys injuries, only the top surgeon in the
  hospital can save him. But when the boys
  unconscious body is revealed, the surgeon says I
  cant operate, he is my son!
• Who is the Surgeon?

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(No Transcript)
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Tolkiens Lord of the Rings

• Eowyn and the Witch King

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Hitchcocks North by Northwest
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Representing Everyone

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(No Transcript)
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When are people men

• 1) What gender are surgeons?
• 2) What gender are men? (Tolkien)
• 3) What gender are spies? (Hitchcock)
• 4) Who represents all humans to aliens?
• 5) Who cant use an emergency exit?
• 6) Who cant eat a yorkie bar?

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Androcentrism

• 1) Males and male experience define the human
  standard.
• 2) Gender difference is attributed to women and
  not attributed to men.
• 3) This system advantages men.
• 4) This system is invisible and seems natural
  and right.
• 5) Psychological research does this just as much
  as ordinary people do!
• 6) Centrisms happen within, as well as
  between, gender categories. Boys will be boys

For fuller discussion see DeBeauvoir (1949) The
Second Sex, and Bem (1991) The lenses of gender.
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Who counts as a male friend?

• D Are there aspects of this that (.)
  conversations and stuff that you have that you
  wouldnt have with other people?
• E Oh yeah. I dunno like er I find that I do tend
  to ask Mike lots of questions to hear like the
  mans point of view of things cos I dont really
  like asking male friends about that kind of
  thing. Even though it you know
• D What do you mean like
• E Straight male friends
• D Straight male
• E Sorry ((laughs)) but erm yeah.

Shepperd, Coyle, Hegarty (in press). Feminism
Psychology
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Who counts as a male friend?

• D Are there aspects of this that (.)
  conversations and stuff that you have that you
  wouldnt have with other people?
• E Oh yeah. I dunno like er I find that I do tend
  to ask Mike lots of questions to hear like the
  mans point of view of things cos I dont really
  like asking male friends about that kind of
  thing. Even though it you know
• D What do you mean like
• E Straight male friends
• D Straight male
• E Sorry ((laughs)) but erm yeah.

Shepperd, Coyle, Hegarty (in press). Feminism
Psychology
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Who counts as a male friend?

• D Are there aspects of this that (.)
  conversations and stuff that you have that you
  wouldnt have with other people?
• E Oh yeah. I dunno like er I find that I do tend
  to ask Mike lots of questions to hear like the
  mans point of view of things cos I dont really
  like asking male friends about that kind of
  thing. Even though it you know
• D What do you mean like
• E Straight male friends
• D Straight male
• E Sorry ((laughs)) but erm yeah.

Shepperd, Coyle, Hegarty (in press). Feminism
Psychology
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Gendered Pronouns
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History of sexist langauge

• Tudor grammar
• Use of king and queen.
• 19th century language reforms
• Use of he to refer to everyone in parliamentary
  and legal
• They considered wrong but popularly used.
• 1970s critique of sexist language
• He and Man were androcentric terms that
  called to mind male imagery. (Sapir-Whorf
  hypothesis).

For a full discussion of the history of English
grammar and gender see Bodine, A. (1975).
Language and Society, 4, 129-146. (Reprinted in
D. Camerons The feminist critique of
language).
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Examples of sexist language

• Man is an animal who breast-feeds his young
  (biology textbook).
• The modus tollens rule
• Socrates is a man.
• All men are mortal.
• Socrates is mortal.

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Examples of sexist language

• Man is an animal who breast-feeds his young
  (biology textbook).
• The modus tollens rule
• Socrates is a man.
• All men are mortal.
• Socrates is mortal.

Same category? (remember boys will be boys)
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Examples of sexist language

• Man is an animal who breast-feeds his young
  (biology textbook).
• The modus tollens rule
• Cleopatra is a man.
• All men are mortal.
• Cleopatra is mortal.

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Examples of sexist language

• Man is an animal who breast-feeds his young
  (biology textbook).
• The modus tollens rule
• Cleopatra is a woman.
• All women are men.
• All men are mortal.
• Cleopatra is mortal.

For this logical example and a general discussion
of androcentism in logic and science see Sandra
Harding (1987). The science question in feminism.
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Use of Irony to Expose Sexism

• There is great beauty to a phrase such as "All
  whites are created equal." Our forebosses who
  framed the Declaration of Independence well
  understood the poetry of our language. Think how
  ugly it would be to say "All persons are created
  equal," or "All whites and blacks are created
  equal." Besides, as any schoolwhitey can tell
  you, such phrases are redundant. In most
  contexts, it is self-evident when "white" is
  being used in an inclusive sense, in which case
  it subsumes members of the darker race just as
  much as fairskins.

For the full paper see Douglas Hofstader (1985)
Metamagical themes. Or download at
http//www.cs.virginia.edu/evans/cs655/readings/p
urity.html
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Research Findings

• He is more often used in gender-specific than
  gender-generic ways in English.
• Martyna (1980). Signs Journal of women in
  culture and society, 5, 482-493.
• Use of he prompts use of male imagery.
• Hamilton (1991). Psychology of Women Quarterly,
  15, 393-402
• Ng (1990). Journal of Experimental Social
  Psychology, 26, 455-464.
• Use of he and man prohibited in psychology in
  1977
• APA Task Force (1977). American Psychologist,
  32, 487-494
• Use of he and man has declined in psychology
  since then
• Gannon et al. (1992). American Psychologist,
  47, 389-396.
• People who endorse sexist language are more often
  (1) men (2) older and (3) sexist
• Parks Roberson (2004). Psychology of Women
  Quarterly, 28, 233-239.
• Inhibiting use of he doesnt change sexist
  attitudes
• Prentice (1994). Journal of Language and Social
  Psychology, 13, 3-19.
• New forms of sexist language may exist (e.g., use
  of guys to refer to everyone).

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Norm Theory Androcentrism Beyond Pronouns!

• When we talk about social groups, who do we mean?

What do you think about the French?
Kahneman Miller (1986), Psych. Review, 93,
136-153
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Norm Theory Androcentrism Beyond Pronouns!

• References to category labels recruit exemplars.
• Exemplars averaged to form category norm.
• Recent and typical exemplars included.
• Excluded - mutable, Surprising, available.

What do you think about European countries?
Roger Federer, Nicolas Sarkozy
Kahneman Miller (1986), Psych. Review
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Androcentric Norms in Action

• Stereotypes of homosexuals
• Haddock et al. (1993). JPSP, 65, 1105-1118.
• Famous people
• Moyer (1995). Sex Roles, 37, 595-618.
• God
• Foster Keating (1992). Journal for the
  Scientific Study of Religion, 31, 366-375.
• Childrens toys
• Lambdin et al. (2003). Sex Roles, 48, 471-482

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Are Stereotypes Androcentric

• American women and men are asked to report
  attitudes toward different national groups.
• Prompted to describe
• men in each national group
• women in each national group
• people in each national group
• Stereotypes described using multi-dimensional
  scaling along two dimensions
• agency
• communion.

Eagly Kite (1987). Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 53, 451-462.
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Stereotypes of men and people
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Stereotypes of women and people
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Consequences of androcentrism

• Definitions of mental health
• Broverman et al. (1972). Journal of Clinical and
  Consulting Psychology, 34, 1-7
• Medical knowledge
• FDA drug testing practices.
• Psychological theories
• Freud (1921). We have been in the habit of
  taking as the subject of our investigations the
  male child See Complete Works, Vol 19, 357-411.
• Legal understandings of reasonable
• Perry et al. (2004). Law and Human Behavior, 28,
  9-27
• Norms for occupations
• Hyde (1984). Developmental Psychology, 20,
  697-706.

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Androcentrism 2 Women have Gender, Men Dont

• Women seem to have gender more than men do.
• Knowing that a person is a woman seems to tell
  you more than knowing that a person is a man.
• Haslam et al. (2000). BJSP, 39, 113-127.
• Gender differences are attributed to women and
  are not attributed to men.
• Miller et al. (1991). JPSP, 61, 5-12.

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Androcentric Explanations

• Think of a typical voter (pilot task).
• Over 90 think of a man (like surgeons, spies,
  and yorkie bar eaters).
• Explain gender differences among voters.
• Explanations reference women (about 51).
• women are more liberal than men
• men are more conservative than women
• Consider the Obama/Clinton race.
• Are explanations always androcentric?

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Explanations in Gender Differences in Male- and
Female-Centred Categories
Miller et al. (1991). JPSP, 61, 5-12.
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Content Analysis of APA Articles

• Sampled articles from
• Journal of Personality and
• Social Psychology (1965-2004)
• Developmental Psychology (1969-2004)
• Journal of Abnormal Psychology (1965-2004)
• Psychology of Women Quarterly (1976-2004)
• 388 of 1859 (21) articles reported gender
  differences.

Hegarty Buechel (2006). Review of General
Psychology, 10, 377-389
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Representation of Women and Men in Psychology
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of articles using he
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References to women and men in explanations.
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Orientation of Tables and Graphs
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Orientation of Tables and Graphs
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How do you disrupt androcentrism?
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How do you disrupt androcentrism?

• 1) Irony all whites are created equal
• 2) Change standards (APA, 1977)
• 3) Female norms (schoolteachers, mothers)
• 4) Change exemplars who are normal.

What do you think about philosophers?
Simone de Beauvoir, Sandra Harding
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Explaining British Voters
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Participants Guesses
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Exp 2 Explanation Content
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Disrupting Androcentric Graphs

• (Scan in from Hegarty Lemieux here).

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Conclusions

• Androcentrism affects the way women and men think
  about
• God, soft toys, voters, foreigners, homosexuals,
  spies, Middle Earth, interactions with aliens,
  psychological data, legal definitions of
  reasonableness, philosophical logic, surgeons,
  emergency exits, chocolate, famous people, future
  American presidents
• Androcentrism is powerful and subtle.
• Androcentrism affects science, law, religion, and
  other sources of authority.

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Key References

• Hyde (1984)
• Eagly Kite (1987)
• Miller et al. (1991)
• Hegarty Buechel (2006)
• Gannon et al. (1992)
• Hamilton (1991)
• Park and Roberson (2004)
• (See other slides for citations).