Abstract
This theoretical paper seeks to reflect on hetero/cissexist bias and how it could influence scientific papers and research on sexual diversity in the field of psychology.
First, the paper defines and describes core concepts in this area, particularly, the notion of bias. Next, some of the most salient problems in this field are outlined, particularly the one concerning homo and transsexuality pathologization.
Finally, some recommendations considered pertinent and useful for avoiding and minimizing bias are systematized.
References
Adams, N., Pearce, R., Veale, J., Radix, A., Castro, D., Sarkar, A., & Thom, K. C. (2017). Guidance and Ethical Considerations for Undertaking Transgender Health Research and Institutional Review Boards Adjudicating this Research. Transgender health, 2(1), 165–175. https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2017.0012
Adelson, S.L. (2012). Practice Parameter on Gay, Lesbian, or Bisexual Sexual Orientation, Gender Nonconformity, and Gender Discordance in Children and Adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 51(9), 957 – 974. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2012.07.004
Alempijevic, D., Beriashvili, R., Beynon, J., Alempijevic Petersen, D., Birmanns, B., Brasholt, M., … Viera, D.N. (2020). Statement of the Independent Forensic Expert Group on Conversion Therapy. Torture: quarterly journal on rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention of torture, 30(1), 66–78. https://doi.org/10.7146/torture.v30i1.119654
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Therapies Focused on Attempts to Change Sexual Orientation (Reparative or Conversion Therapies): Position Statement. Recuperado de http://www.psych.org/Departments/EDU/Library/APAOfficialDocumentsandRelated/PositionStatements/200001.aspx
American Psychiatric Association. (2014). Manual diagnóstico y estadístico de los trastornos mentales: DSM-5 (5a ed.). Médica Panamericana.
American Psychological Association. (2009). Report of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Appropriate Therapeutic Responses to Sexual Orientation. Recuperado de http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/publications/therapeutic-resp.html
American Psychological Association. (2015). Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming People. American Psychologist, 70(9), 832-864. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039906
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. American Psychological Association, 7th Edition.
Amodio, D.M., & Devine, P.G. (2006). Stereotyping and evaluation in implicit race bias: evidence for independent constructs and unique effects on behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology, 91(4), 652–661. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.4.652
Ansara, Y.G. & Hegarty,P. (2012). Cisgenderism in psychology: pathologising and misgendering children from 1999 to 2008. Psychology & Sexuality, 3(2), 137-160. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2011.576696
Ansara, Y.G. & Hegarty,P. (2013). Misgendering in English language contexts: Applying non-cisgenderist methods to feminist research. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 7(2), 160-177. https://doi.org/10.5172/mra.2013.7.2.160
Ansara, Y. G. & Hegarty, P. (2014). Methodologies of misgendering: Recommendations for reducing cisgenderism in psychological research. Feminism & Psychology, 24(2), 259-270. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353514526217
APA. Commission on Psychotherapy by Psychiatrists. (2000). Position statement on therapies focused on attempts to change sexual orientation (reparative or conversion therapies). The American journal of psychiatry, 157(10), 1719–1721.
Asociación Psiquiátrica Americana. (2014). DSM-5. Manual diagnóstico y estadístico de los trastornos mentales. Editorial Médica Panamericana.
Barrientos, J., Saiz, J.L., Gómez, F., Guzmán, M., Espinoza, R., Bahamondes, J., & Cárdenas, M. (2019). La investigación psicosocial actual referida a la salud mental de las personas transgénero: Una mirada desde Chile. Psykhe, 28(2). https://doi.org/10.7764/psykhe.28.2.1482
Blackless, M., Charuvastra, A., Derryck, A., Fausto-Sterling, A., Lauzanne, K., & Lee, E. (2000). How sexually dimorphic are we? Review and synthesis. American journal of human biology: the official journal of the Human Biology Council, 12(2), 151–166. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1520-6300(200003/04)12:2<151::AID-AJHB1>3.0.CO;2-F
Bouman, W. P., Schwend, A.S., Motmans, J., Smiley, A., Safer, J.D., Deutsch, M.B., Adams, N.J., & Winter, S. (2017). Language and trans health. International Journal of Transgenderism, 18(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2016.1262127
Brownstein, M. & Saul, J. (ed.) (2016). Implicit Bias and Philosophy: Moral Responsibility, Structural Injustice, and Ethics. Oxford University Press.
Cárdenas Castro, M., Saiz, J.L., Barrientos Delgado, J., Espinoza Tapia, R., Linker, D., Gómez Ojeda, F., Guzmán González, M., & Saavedra, L. (2021). Recomendaciones para la investigación psicológica con personas transgénero: Una aproximación desde una experiencia en Chile. Revista Interdisciplinaria, 38(1), 217-234. http://doi.org/10.16888/interd.2021.38.1.14
Centro de Atención en Psicología Afirmativa para personas LGBTI y en temáticas de diversidad sexual - Facultad de Psicología – UDELAR. (2020). #SaludableMenteOrgullosxs T1.E1. Guías APA para la atención psicológica de personas LGBTI [Archivo de video]. Recuperado de https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppmw76bRi5I&t=7969s&ab_channel=capaLGBTI
Colombo, S. & Barité, M. (2015). Tres enfoques de bias en Organización del Conocimiento: Bias neutro, bias negativo y bias positivo. Brazilian Journal of Information Studies, 9(2), 9-13. https://dx.doi.org/10.5016/brajis.v9i2.5685
Concha, D., Bilbao Ramírez, M. Ángeles, Gallardo Cuadra, I., Páez Rovira, D., & Fresno Rodríguez, A. (2016). Sesgos cognitivos y su relación con el bienestar subjetivo. Salud & Sociedad, 3(2), 115-129. https://doi.org/10.22199/S07187475.2012.0002.00001
Chapman, E. N., Kaatz, A., & Carnes, M. (2013). Physicians and implicit bias: how doctors may unwittingly perpetuate health care disparities. Journal of general internal medicine, 28(11), 1504–1510. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-013-2441-1
Denmark, F. L. (1994). Engendering psychology. American Psychologist, 49(4), 329–334. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.49.4.329
Denmark, F., Russo, N. F., Frieze, I. H., & Sechzer, J. A. (1988). Guidelines for avoiding sexism in psychological research: A report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Nonsexist Research. American Psychologist, 43(7), 582–585. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.43.7.582
De Houwer J. (2019). Implicit Bias Is Behavior: A Functional-Cognitive Perspective on Implicit Bias. Perspectives on psychological science: a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 14(5), 835–840. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619855638
Ending Conversion Therapy: Supporting and Affirming LGBTQ Youth. (2015). Substance abuse and mental health services administration. Recuperado de https://store.samhsa.gov/sites/default/files/d7/priv/sma15-4928.pdf
Fausto-Sterling, A. (2012). Sex/gender: Biology in a social world. Routledge.
Fausto-Sterling, A. (25 octubre de 2018). Opinion. Why sex is not binary. The complexity is more than cultural. Its biological, too. The New York Times. Recuperado de https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/opinion/sex-biology-binary.html
Ferguson, C. J., & Brannick, M. T. (2012). Publication bias in psychological science: Prevalence, methods for identifying and controlling, and implications for the use of meta-analyses. Psychological Methods, 17(1), 120–128. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024445
Flores, A. (2019). Social Acceptance of LGBT People in 174 Countries, 1981 to 2017. The Williams Institute.
Freitas De León, P. (2012). Capítulo 6: Entre “Agrado” e “Prudência”, a identidade em questão: Contribuições desde e para uma Psicologia Social Crítica no campo LGBT. En: A.F.de Lima (organizador), Psicología Social Crítica: Paralaxes do contemporáneo (pp. 111- 140). Editora Sulina.
Freitas De León, P. (2018). Reseña:“Terapia afirmativa: Una introducción a la psicología ya la psicoterapia dirigida a gays, lesbianas y bisexuales”. Psicología, conocimiento y sociedad, 8(1), 288-298. http://dx.doi.org/10.26864/pcs.v8.n1.13
Frieze, I. H., & Chrisler, J.C. (2011). Editorial policy on the use of the terms “sex” and “gender”. Sex Roles, 64, 789–790.
Gannon, L., Luchetta, T., Rhodes, K., Pardie, L., & Segrist, D. (1992). Sex bias in psychological research. Progress or complacency?. American psychologist, 47(3), 389–396. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.47.3.389
Gannon, L., Luchetta, T., Rhodes, K., Pardie, L., & Segrist, D. (1992). Sex bias in psychological research. Progress or complacency?. American psychologist, 47(3), 389–396. https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066x.47.3.389
Hahn, A., & Gawronski, B. (2019). Facing one's implicit biases: From awareness to acknowledgment. Journal of personality and social psychology, 116(5), 769–794. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000155
Henrickson, M., Giwa, S., Hafford-Letchfield, T., Cocker, C., Mulé, N. J., Schaub, J., & Baril, A. (2020). Research Ethics with Gender and Sexually Diverse Persons. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(18), 6615. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186615
Herek, G. M., Kimmel, D. C., Amaro, H., & Melton, G. B. (1991). Avoiding heterosexist bias in psychological research. American Psychologist, 46(9), 957–963. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.46.9.957.
Holroyd, J. (2012). Responsibility for Implicit Bias. Journal of Social Philosophy, 43(3), 274-306. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9833.2012.01565.x
Holroyd, J., Scaife, R. & Stafford, T. (2017). What is implicit bias?. Philosophy Compass, 12(10), e12437. https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12437
Íñiguez, L, & Pallí, C. (2002). La Psicología Social de la Ciencia: Revisión y discusión de una nueva área de investigación. Anales de Psicología, 18(1), 13-43. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps
Maruzza, C. (2020). (Des)patologización trans* en la formación de psicologia. En: S. E. Sustas, S. A. Tapia y M. P. Venturielo (comps.) (pp. 277-305). Investigación e intervención en salud. Teseo.
Mas Grau, J. (2017). Del transexualismo a la disforia de género en el DSM. Cambios terminológicos, misma esencia patologizante. Revista internacional de sociología, 75(2), e059. https://doi.org/10.3989/ris.2017.75.2.15.63
Medina, J. (2013). The epistemology of resistance. Gender and racial oppression, epistemic injustice, and resistant imagination. Oxford University Press.
Meyerowitz, J. (2009). How sex changed. a history of transsexuality in the United States. Harvard University Press.
Pagani, C. (2019). Psicoanálisis con perspectiva de género: ¿ruptura o asimilacionismo?. XIX Congreso Nacional de Filosofía. Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Mar del Plata: Mar del Plata.
Pérez, M. (2019). Salud y soberanía de los cuerpos: propuestas y tensiones desde una perspectiva queer. En: Fundación Soberanía Sanitaria (comp.) Salud feminista. Soberanía de los cuerpos, poder y organización. Tinta Limón.
Radi, B. (2020). Notas (al pie) sobre cisnormatividad y feminismo. Ideas. Revista de filosofía moderna y contemporánea, 11, 23-36.
Saul, J. (2013). Implicit bias, stereotype threat, and women in philosophy. En: K. Hutchison & F. Jenkins (ed.) (2013). Women in philosophy. What needs to change? (pp. 39-60). Oxford University Press.
Suess, A., Espineira, K. & Walters, P. (2014). Depathologization. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(1/2), 73-77. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2399650
Suess, A. (2016). Transitar por los géneros es un derecho. Recorridos por la perspectiva de despatologización. Universidad de Granada. Recuperado de https://digibug.ugr.es/handle/10481/42255
The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. (2020). Homofobia de Estado 2020: Actualización del Panorama Global de la Legislación. Informe redactado por Lucas Ramón Mendos, Kellyn Botha, Rafael Carrano Lelis, Enrique López de la Peña, Ilia Savelev y Daron Tan. ILGA.
UN Human Rights Council (2020). Práctica de las llamadas “terapias de conversión”. Informe del Experto Independiente sobre la protección
contra la violencia y la discriminación por motivos
de orientación sexual o identidad de género*. A/HRC/44/53. Recuperado de https://undocs.org/es/A/HRC/44/53
van Aert R.C.M., Wicherts, J.M., & van Assen M.A.L.M. (2019). Publication bias examined in meta-analyses from psychology and medicine: A meta-meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 14(4), e0215052. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215052.t005
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2021 Jaime Barrientos, Blas Radi