Psychology is focused on first observing and describing, and then trying to explain, causes of individuals’ thoughts, feelings and behaviour. The scope of psychology is broad, with researchers investigating topics as diverse as perception, learning, motivation, personality, social behaviour and mental health. Some psychologists adopt a biological perspective that focuses on the relationship between brain function and behaviour. Others focus on social processes, such as the role of peers, family members and school as influences on behaviour.
Historically, psychologists used the words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ interchangeably. It was widely assumed that there were two mutually exclusive sexes (male and female) which corresponded to two mutually exclusive genders (masculine and feminine). Moreover, in traditional viewpoints, men were sexually attracted to women, whereas women were sexually attracted to men. In other words, there was an assumed correspondence among sex, gender and desire.
In the early 1970s, psychologists (Bem 1974; Spence et al. 1974) recognised that gender was not an automatic expression of being born male or female. Gender was seen as the expression of masculine and feminine traits, often but not automatically associated with biological sex. In other words, masculinity and femininity were two separate dimensions rather than opposite endpoints on a single dimension of gender. An individual who displayed both masculinity and femininity was conceptualised as androgynous. In contrast, someone who scored low on both masculinity and femininity was classed as undifferentiated. Gender is conceptualised as a routine performance by approaches that emphasise the way that social reality is created through social interactions (Goffman 1976; West and Zimmerman 1987).
Sexual orientation represents another challenge to simple views of gender and sexuality. Sexual orientation has been conceptualised by researchers as a continuum rather than as a dichotomy (Kinsey et al. 1948). Although many people would define themselves as exclusively heterosexual or homosexual, some individuals view their orientation as sexual desire for both men and women, i.e. bisexual. As with gender, scholars have argued that heterosexuality and homosexuality should not be thought of as opposite ends of a single dimension but rather as two separate dimensions. People may engage in situationally driven sexual actions. For example, men who view their sexual identities as heterosexual will sometimes perform sexual acts with other men for economic reasons (e.g. male prostitutes) or because they lack access to available women (e.g. prisoners).
Available evidence indicates very small psychological differences as a function of biological sex. One landmark analysis of gender differences was the book The Psychology of Gender Differences (1974). In their review of over 2,000 studies, Maccoby and Jacklin found fewer significant differences than might be expected between men and women. For example, sex differences were not found in self-esteem, sociability or achievement motivation. Findings were mixed regarding nurturance and competitive dominance. One gender difference was that women had greater verbal ability than men. In contrast, men were more visual-spatial and mathematical than women. Men were also more aggressive than women.
Meta-analysis is a statistical technique to combine the results from many studies on a particular topic, such as gender differences. Consistent with Maccoby and Jacklin, and in contrast to lay intuition, the magnitude of sex differences obtained from meta-analysis is almost always small. Some differences between men and women seem consistent with gender role stereotypes. For example, women tend to smile more than men. Compared to women, men tend to be more risk-taking and indicate higher global self-esteem. Although unprovoked men are more aggressive than women, provocation reduces this difference. Men and women differ in preferences for mates, with women assigning greater weight than men to socioeconomic status, ambitiousness and status. Job attribute preferences of men and women tend to be consistent with gender roles and stereotypes. Men and women do not differ in personality traits such as social anxiety, impulsiveness, orderliness or locus of control. Differences in verbal ability, long considered an important distinction, are so small it has been argued that the difference no longer exists. Sex differences in spatial abilities and mathematical performance are also small.
One area where there do seem to be reliable and large differences between men and women is in the domain of sex (Baumeister 2000). Men think about sex more, desire sex more, and desire to have a greater number of sex partners than women. Men have more permissive attitudes towards sexual practices. For example, men report a greater interest and more enjoyment in pornography than women. Men, to a much greater degree than women, are willing to report masturbating. Although psychological differences between men and women are thought to be relatively small, psychologists have tried to determine the extent to which differences reflect biological or learned processes. Several psychological traditions interpret differences in terms of innate, biologically based tendencies. Other perspectives focus on how socialisation creates gender differences. Not surprisingly, some approaches incorporate both a biological and learned component
Psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud (1924) in the late nineteenth century, is the most famous theory in psychology. Although discredited in many ways, psychoanalysis has had a profound effect on how both scientists and lay individuals conceptualise human beings. The most important contribution of psychoanalysis was the concept that an individual’s behaviour was governed by unconscious forces. According to Freud, the transition from childhood to adulthood was characterised by several developmental stages. An adult’s behaviour could be understood in terms of how he or she resolved conflict at each psychosexual stage. The phallic stage around age three to six was the key psychosexual stage in understanding the child’s transition to adulthood. Moreover, the phallic stage has a strong gendered component. The central element of the phallic stage is the Oedipal complex, named for the Greek myth of Oedipus, who was doomed to unknowingly murder his father and marry his mother. For a boy, the Oedipal complex involves the simultaneous experience of a desire to murder his father and incestuous sexual desire for his mother.
Evolutionary psychology, which has its roots in sociobiology, focuses on how biological factors can be seen as core contributors to complex social behaviours (Buss and Schmitt 1993). Evolutionary psychologists assume that evolutionary processes of natural selection have affected how people think, feel and behave in complex ways. The underlying logic of evolutionary psychology rests with the obvious differences in the way that men and women reproduce. The male contribution of sperm is low cost, whereas the female contribution of the egg carries much higher costs. First, women produce only one egg per month after reaching puberty and prior to menopause. In contrast, men produce millions of sperm in a single day. In addition, the act of carrying an unborn child for nine months, not to mention the physical stresses of childbirth, adds considerably to the cost for women of having children. Moreover, once a child is born, women do more than half of active parenting. The advantage to women for their heavy investment in having and taking care of children is that they are certain that a child is theirs, whereas for men there may be uncertainty associated with paternity.
Evolutionary psychologists assert that basic biological differences between men and women, which lead to different costs and benefits of having children, produce important differences with regard to mate preferences. The fact that men have a higher sex drive, on average, can be understood as a result of the evolutionary benefit to men associated with having multiple partners with whom to reproduce. Women’s desire to secure a mate to provide for her and her children manifest themselves in women’s greater willingness to have partners older than themselves. Older men, presumably, have more time to collect resources and develop skills that assist them in accumulating resources. In contrast, men’s preferences for younger women are seen as stemming from the desire to mate with reproductively viable females.
Social structural theory (Eagly 1987) posits that in historical hunter-gatherer societies physical sex differences (e.g. size, upper body strength) encouraged men and women to take on different activities to maximise the likelihood of their joint survival. These initial differences in activities became institutionalised as sex-appropriate roles as society grew more complex. Moreover, the tendency of men and women to strive to develop skills associated with appropriate role performance further reified what characteristics were associated with masculinity and femininity. Because what came to be known as men’s roles were associated with greater status and resource acquisition, relative to women’s roles, men developed a more dominant orientation, whereas women developed a more cooperative, conciliatory orientation. According to this perspective, what might be thought of as major differences between men and women came about because of social processes that emerged from relatively small biological differences between the sexes.
Social structural theory and evolutionary psychology both agree that men and women have different preferences for mate selection and sexuality. The important difference between the two approaches is how they explain these differences. Social structural theorists view the differences as resulting from the way that social institutions reward men and women. In contrast, evolutionary psychologists see differences as reflecting innate biological differences between men and women. Part of the controversy between these two approaches is that evolutionary psychology legitimises stereotypic beliefs about gender (e.g. women innately desire to be cared for by men, whereas men innately desire to be sexually promiscuous) that reinforce patriarchal views of gender.
The socialisation process begins at birth with adults treating boys and girls in accord with gender stereotypes as a function of sex. Descriptively, stereotypes portray men as strong, confident, aggressive and sexually motivated. Women, in contrast, are characterised as communicative and emotional, nurturant and less sexually oriented than men (Deaux and Lewis 1984). In addition, the proscriptive element informs men and women how they should behave. Unlike other categories, such as race or religion, gender stereotypes can be seen as positive. It is therefore often the case that both men and women adhere to stereotypic roles.
Gender role strain refers to stress that people experience as a result of trying to live up to societal standards of gender (Pleck 1995). One form of gender role strain is discrepancy strain, where people experience a conflict between how they see themselves and society’s view of how they should behave. Discrepancy strain occurs, for example, with the conflict a man might experience between expressing emotional connection to other men and appearing effeminate. Dysfunction strain occurs when living out a stereotypically gendered role produces conflict with others. For example, a man’s unwillingness to communicate his emotions might lead to his wife feeling ignored or unloved. Finally, trauma strain results when living out a gendered identity leads to physical harm. Typically, men are expected to be strong and uncomplaining. Hence, they may delay seeking medical attention for injuries.
Transgenderism refers to the idea that a person of one biological sex will adopt the appearance or behaviours of the opposite gender (Tewksbury and Gagne 1996). Although not universally true, transgenderism tends to involve men expressing an interest in adopting the presentation of women rather than women who seek to emulate masculine conventions. Transgenderism ranges in the intensity to which it is expressed. Lower levels of intensity include female impersonators, drag queens and cross-dressers. There are a variety of possible motives for these forms of transgenderism, including economic gain, amusement and sexual arousal. For example, transvestitism is a form of cross-dressing where the individual achieves sexual pleasure from wearing the clothing of the opposite gender.
Given the importance society places on gender, it is not surprising that people may experience a great deal of psychological distress when their gender identity conflicts with their biological sex. Gender identity disorder is a diagnosis that psychologists and psychiatrists give to an individual who expresses a strong and long-lasting cross-gender identification. Transsexuals represent a small proportion of individuals whose response to cross-gender identification includes seeking out medical interventions such as hormone treatments and surgery to bring their physical body more into congruence with their gendered self-concept.
Deaux, K. and Lewis, L.L. (1984) ‘Structure of gender stereotypes’, Journal of Personality and Sodal Psychology, 46:991–1004.
Eagly, A.H. (1987) Sex Differences in Sodal Behavior, Hillsdale, MI: Earlbaum.
Freud, S. (1924) ‘The dissolution of the Oedipus complex’, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works, 24 vols, London: Hogarth, vol. 19, pp. 172–79.
Goffman, E. (1976) ‘Gender display’, Studies in the Anthropology qf Visual Communication, 3:69–77.
Kinsey, A., Pomeroy, W. and Martin, C. (1948) Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Philadelphia, PA: Saunders.
Maccoby, E.E. and Jacklin, C.N. (1974) The Psychology ofSex Differences, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Pleck, J.H. (1995) ‘The gender role strain paradigm’, in R.F.Levant and W.S.Pollack (eds) A New Psychology of Men, New York: Basic Books, pp. 11–32.
Spence, J.T., Helmreich, R.L. and Stapp, J. (1974) ‘The personal attributes Questionnaire’, JSAS Catalog of Selected Documents in Psychology, 43:617.
Tewksbury, R. and Gagne, P. (1996) ‘Transgenderists’, Journal o/Men’s Studies, 5:105–29.
West, C. and Zimmerman, D.H. (1987) ‘Doing gender’, Gender and Sodety, 1:125–51.
See also: Jungian perspectives; object relations perspectives; psychoanalisis; transgender; transsexual
JAMES K.BEGGAN JILL M.HARBISON
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