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AVOIDING BIASED LANGUAGE PSY 311
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Are people who use biased language evil? “When we are not careful, we take mental shortcuts that allow us to describe a group of individuals quickly, but that description could be far from accurate.” “When we are not careful, we take mental shortcuts that allow us to describe a group of individuals quickly, but that description could be far from accurate.” Problem: How do we describe participants?
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SOLUTION In psychological research:
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EXAMPLE Schizophrenics Those individuals with paranoid schizophrenic symptoms
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“view people as individuals first”
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PEOPLE ARE MORE THAN LABELS LABELS: Sexual orientation Racial & ethnic identity Disabilities Occupations Gender
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EXAMPLE Diabetics People with diabetes Diabetics People with diabetes High self-esteem students Students who report high self-esteem
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LABELS: LABELS: Sexual orientation Sexual orientation vs. sexual behavior Lesbian, gay man, bisexual man, bisexual woman (APA, 2010) Racial & ethnic identity Race vs. ethnicity Ethnicity: self-identify (e.g., American Indians, African Americans, Latinos, Chinese, etc.) Race: ? Disabilities Individuals with disabilities vs. disabled people Avoid emotionally charged words (e.g., crippled, handicapped, retarded, physically challenged, stroke victim, etc.) Occupations Titles often contain gender bias e.g., fireman, chairman, policeman/policewoman, male nurse, woman doctor, etc. Gender
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GENDER AVOID he or she whenever possible
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SOLUTIONS: Drop the pronounDrop the pronoun Biased: The experimenter checked to see if his class points were recorded. Unbiased: The experimenter checked to see if class points were recorded. Replace the pronoun with nounsReplace the pronoun with nouns (e.g., person, individual, researcher, participant, etc.) Biased: We wanted to determine if his or her prior experiences influenced current attitudes. Unbiased: We wanted to determine if the participant’s prior experiences influenced current attitudes. Simplify the sentenceSimplify the sentence Biased: Anyone wanting to sign up for the experiment needs to use his/her student identification number. Unbiased: Student identification numbers are necessary for signing up for the experiment.
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Questions?
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