Psychology of Women Exam 1 Review PDF

Psych of Women: Exam 1 Review 9/27/24 CH.1: (Introduction) Intellectual Humility - Recognizing the limits to one’s knowledge and that one’s beliefs may be wrong. - People’s opinions are likely not to be changed when talking about certain topics or issues (politics, sports teams, so...

Psych of Women: Exam 1 Review 9/27/24 CH.1: (Introduction) Intellectual Humility - Recognizing the limits to one’s knowledge and that one’s beliefs may be wrong. - People’s opinions are likely not to be changed when talking about certain topics or issues (politics, sports teams, social media pressure) Characteristics of Critical Thinking - Examining and questioning claims made in class, the textbook, and your own beliefs - HOW? - Clarify definitions - Look for assumptions of an argument or claim - Evaluate evidence and determine whether more is needed - EX: Journal entry about women being judged on what they are wearing, editor vetoed publication…. Biopsychological Approach When Studying Gender - People’s experiences are shaped by - Biological influences and processes - Genes, hormones, bodily experiences - Psychological factors and processes - Thoughts, feelings, behaviors - Sociocultural factors - Media, cultural norms, interaction within and across cultures - And interactions among these How/when the field of gender studies emerged (generally, from textbook and class). Relationship of feminism to the psychology of women. Changing demographics in the field (Box 1.1). - Emerged as the women’s movement of the late 1960’s - Women and gender started to become a social concern and psychology finally started to examine the bias Sex - Refers to biological and physiological characteristics that define a person as either male or female  - Determined by genetics, chromosomes, and hormones - Initially differences between men and women were called sex differences, assumed to be due to biology – hormones, anatomy, etc. - Ignored sociocultural differences Gender - Classification system based on sex - Consists of broad sets of attributes associated with men (masculinity) and women (femininity) - Traits, roles, expectations for behavior and appearance, etc. - Learned within a culture and vary across time - Gender is interactive and dynamic, not just stable traits that are learned - Gender is acted out and enforced in situations - How do situations or interactions provoke gender-typical behaviors? - Intersectionality: refers to social categories like race, sex, and class - Textbook: Gender is a system that - Shapes relations among men and women - Influences access to power and resources - (Methods) Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Research - Qualitative - Open-ended research dealing with complex behaviors and experiences - Doesn’t systematically measure or manipulate behaviors - Doesn’t test hypotheses - EX: interviews, focus groups, ethnography, case studies - Quantitative - Measuring behavior, comparing groups, or examining relationships with statistical tests - Tests hypotheses - Aims for generalization to larger population - EX: experiments, correlational research - Experiments: - seek to determine the effect of manipulating an independent variable on a measured factor called the dependent variable  - Example: Do people trust the advice of men doctors more than women doctors, or vice versa? - Controls situation and varies conditions; allows cause-and-effect conclusions to be drawn - Have students listen to advice given by a doctor (man vs. woman) - Measure likelihood of taking advice. Correlational Research - Investigates systematic relationships between two measured variables - EX: A study finds that women who are heavier drinkers have more sexual encounters, A positive correlation between heavy drinking and sexual frequency. - CANNOT DETERMINE CAUSATION - Socializing with peers more could lead to heavy drinking and sexual encounters. - Having more sexual encounters could lead to heavier drinking. - Gender Comparisons (correlational) - Gender comparisons are always treated as correlational, not causal (can’t randomly assign) - Example: Study finds that women report taking fewer risks at work than men (e.g., calling out when not sick, pointing out boss’s mistake). - Interpretation tricky - Perhaps shorter people take more risks than taller people. - “3rd” variable problem (height). Biases that are possible in research on gender (and examples). From class and “Gender-fair Research” section in textbook: - Question formulation Example: many past studies of leadership defined it with terms associated with aggression, dominance, and other masculine traits. Now they are associating it with being considerate of others, ability to negotiate, and to help others resolve - Designing research Example: choice of research participants that psychologists have come to rely more on are college students which creates biases in age, social class, and developmental stage - Analyzing data Psychologist have come to rely more on quantitative methods that used statistical tests for data analysis which can lead to difficulties on research for sex and gender as well as resulting in just statistics rather than in depth, complex, opened ended information - Interpreting and publishing research results Overgeneralization occurs when gender differences in performing a specific task are interpreted as evidence for a more general difference. Also creates a bias to think of men and women as separate categories - Formulation of research question - Gender stereotypes can bias questions: - Leadership defined as dominance and aggression - Does a mother's work endanger a child's welfare? - Ignoring nature v nurture - Study design, including participants - Participants - Historical over reliance on men - Women often over represented now - Lack of ethnic, cultural, economic, global, gender identity diversity in samples - Sexual orientation/ identity - may depend on topic (relationships/ married couples) - Data Analysis & Publishing - General bias favoring looking for differences  - We test for statistical differences not similarities - Can apply to both gender characteristics and treatment - Differences more likely to be published/ reported on - The “file drawer problem” Know what the five feminist values in research are from the textbook. - Empirical research is a worthwhile activity - Research methods should be critically examined - Both women and men can conduct feminist research - Science can never really be fully objective value neutral - Social, historical, and political forces shape human behavior (Gender Stereotypes and Gendered Behavior) Stereotypes - Mutual network of beliefs about how people in a particular group think, look, and behave Gender stereotypes - Networks of related beliefs that reflect the “common wisdom” about women and men - Can involve broad groups (men and women) or subtypes (career women) or subgroups (race-gender) - Allows us to make sense of a complex world Know the four limitations about stereotyping (begins bottom of page 90). 1. People do not say (unless forced to chose) that women and men are complete opposites, rather they think women and men differ on average 2. Although most people know the stereotypes, not everyone believes them 3. Stereotypes tend to have the biggest influence when you are registering a first impression of a stranger or thinking generally about a category of people 4. Activation of a stereotype in our mind tends to be an automatic process that is not under our conscious control, and happens even if we don't believe the stereotype Content of Gender Stereotypes (4 types of gender attributes focus on) 1. Traits 2. Role Behaviors 3. occupations 4. Physical appearance Agentic vs Communal Traits Agnetic (associated with men) - (instrumental) characteristics describe an active agent or effective “doer” - Ambitious - Assertive - Competitive - Independent Communal (associated with women) - (affective) characteristics describe someone who is concerned with feelings and other people - Compassionate - Warm - Emotional - Sensitive How the agentic and communal stereotypes have changed over time: - women being more communal than men - Women and men equally agnetic - Competence and intelligence equal for men and women Sexuality: how lesbian women are stereotyped (traits and attributes expected) - Both in and outside the realm of athletics, sexuality stereotypes may be a means of keeping women subordinated. As long as the label “lesbian” carries a social stigma, it can be used as a weapon against any woman. On the other hand, the stereotype of lesbians as mannish may protect them from some of the negative evaluation of women’s competence. Stereotypes as prescriptive (know what that means), - Put pressure on men and women to act a certain way