Psyc 2618

1
Psyc 2618

• Psychology of women/gender

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Some essential definitions

• Sex and gender
• social biases
• feminists approaches
• gender approaches

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Define sex and gender

• Sex inborn physiological characteristics
  relating to reproduction.
• Gender psychological characteristics and social
  categories that are created by human culture.

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Social Biases

• Sexism bias against people on the basis of their
  gender.
• Racism bias against differing racial or ethnic
  groups.
• Classism bias on the basis of social class.
• Heterosexism bias against groups that are not
  exclusively heterosexual.
• Ableism/ageism

5
Feminist Approaches

• Feminism values womens experiences
• Liberal feminism focuses on the goal of gender
  equality, giving women and men the same
  rights/opportunities.
• Cultural feminism emphasizes gender differences
  that value women. Favors social restructuring to
  favor cooperation.
• Radical f focus on biological differences and
  ways to eliminate them.

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Stages of genderism

• Stage I gender stratification -
  distinct/enforced roles for men/women.
• Stage II g uniformity - men and women are
  equal.
• Stage III g differentiation - distinct
  behavioral differences.
• Stage IV g equality - fair and equal value
• Stage V g dualism - use distinct contributions
  of each gender.

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Psychological approaches to Gender

• Similarities perspective - focus on the
  similarities of the genders.
• Differences perspective - focus on the
  differences of the genders but the value of
  individuality.

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Bias in Research

• Formulating the hypothesis
• using a biased theory
• formulating a hypothesis on the basis of
  unrelated research, ie., research on orphans to
  suggest a negative impact of working mothers.
• Asking limiting questions, seeing ACOA as a
  deficit rather than a strength.

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Designing the study

• Operational definitions
• Choice of participants
• Choice of experimenter
• Confounding variables

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Performing the study

• Experimenter expectancy
• Participant expectancy

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Interpreting the data

• Ignoring alternate explanations.
• Making inappropriate generalizations.
• Leaving out analyses that show gender
  similarities.
• Leaving out analyses that show gender
  differences.
• Journal editors selection of studies.
• Secondary sources.

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Summarizing themes

• Most gender differences are small.
• People react differently to men and women.
• Variability exists for each gender.