Guidelines for avoiding sexism in psychological research: A report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Nonsexist Research.

Abstract

This article is intended primarily for psychologists and for students of psychology who are developing skills in research design and methodology. has become clear that much research on human and animal behavior incorporates a variety of forms of sexism. Such sexism introduces unwanted bias into the research. The elimination of gender bias in psychological research is an important concern for the discipline of psychology. Researchers should attempt to achieve the highest methodological and ethical standards. To help to enhance the quality of psychological research, the Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology formed an Ad Hoc Committee on Nonsexist Research to develop materials to educate psychologists about ways to eliminate gender bias in research. This article was developed under the auspices of that committee, which was composed of representatives from the Board of Scientific Affairs, the Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology, and the Committee on Women in Psychology. Reviews of the literature document the pervasiveness of gender bias at all stages of research: question formulation, research design, data analysis and interpretation, and conclusion formulation. This document identifies some of the ways that gender bias can affect research at each of these stages. The examples given are derived from current literature. The discussion on the following pages is intended to illustrate general problems. It is not exhaustive. Additional sources of information are also listed. Whenever values and assumptions---whether related to gender, race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status--affect the research process, bias can operate. This article focuses on gender, but the principles illustrated here apply to other forms of bias as well. This article provides examples of common avoidable problems as well as suggestions for eliminating such bias. 1. Question Formulation