7: Gender and Identity Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is a critical perspective on science in history?
Knowledge construction - the idea that knowledge about the psychological world is not found but constructed
What are the different phases of feminism in psychology?
- Androcentric (until the 1960s) - Margaret Washburn, Inez Prosser + Ruth (women of colour to get PhD, Calkins, Anastasi (APA president)
- Compensatory (until 1990s) -
- Transformative (until now) -
What happened in the Androcentric Phase of history?
Male was considered normative. Participants were predominately young, white, middle-class, able-bodied and heterosexual men and findings in other populations weren’t done as it was assumed that such research applied to everyone else. If there was research done, it would to be to find “deviations” in the norm (like why women were “emotional” and different)
Who challenged the premises of the Androcentric era?
Helen Thompson Woolley. She wrote a PhD in psychology on psychological norms in men and women. She later wrote “the Mental Traits of Sex” which criticised the idea of gender differences. Critics argued that this work had sampling bias (she apparently picked better than average women).
What happened in the Compensatory Phase?
John Money introduced the idea of Gender roles and the idea that it is a social construct (although he was transphobic). Second wave feminism came about along with vietnam protests, stonewall riots and the civil rights movement. This leads to the Federal Equal Pay Act, National Organisation for Women, Association for Women in Psychology and Division of Psychology for Women in the APA.
What did psychologists engage in in the Compensatory phase?
- More focus on foremothers of psychology
- “Women as problem” ignored, where explanation of differences of deficiencies of roles and expectations of society
- Shift from “women” to “doing gender”
- Transformation - self-reflective challenging of assumptions and practices in the field
What is the connection between social justice and article publication?
When social justice movements are popular, more articles about such topics are published - as seen in waves from second-third wave feminism
What happened in the transformation phase?
It started from Anita Hill sexual misconduct testimony against Justice Clarence Thomas. It was shredded by the media and ignored, leading to third-wave feminism. Dealing with intersectionality (the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race etc, and other forms of discrimination intersect to create unique dynamics and effects. Therefore, discrimination and privilege are context dependent
What is ontology?
The question of “what is the nature of reality?” In Psychology, it concerns what kinds of entities, structures and processes are presumed to exits when studying mind and behaviour.
What is the ontology of homosexuality?
It started with:
1. Pathology (deviant and contagious)
2. Immaturity (stunted sexuality)
3. Normal Variation (natural)
These leads to different moral evaluations, treatment and social/legal status.
What is heterosexism?
The heterosexual assumption; the idea that all people are presumed heterosexual and that there is a binary gender/sex. Heterosexual behaviour is then considered normal, natural, and unproblematic
Who was Karl Heinrich Ulrichs?
He was the first person to publicly state their homosexual orientation in the 5 pamphlets which suggested that male homosexuality (3rd sex) with the female mind in male body. This was based on Plato’s types of love (urning, dioning, urnigin, dionigin). He argued that there should be a reform to allow homosexuality by law.
Who was Richard von Kraft-Ebbing?
He was a man who wrote the textbook of forensic psychology and later “psychopathia sexualis.” He wrote letters to Ulrichs (pretending support. He claimed homosexuality as a hereditary neuropsychopathic disorder. Homosexuals were therefore not responsible for their innate reversal of sexual drive and thus complete decriminalization and focus on treatment by psychiatrists.
Who was Magnus Hirschfeld?
Created the “League for the protection of mothers.” He was gay and was based in a lot of gay subculture. He was horrified by the death of a gay patient and petitioned the Reichstag to remove homosexuality as a crime. He then also did statistical research on suicidality among gay men. He wrote about the naturalness of homosexuality, writing “why do other nations hate us?” comparing the international hate for Germany to the german hate for gay people.
What are the pre-1950s perspectives on homosexuality?
- Freud’s letter to an American mother: explained how homosexuality was “stunted growth” of sexuality
- After Freud’s death, criticism by US Psychoanalysts led to them discounted
- Illness model of homosexuality
- Alfred Kinsey - sexuality of the human male by asking thousands of people of their sexual preferences. He was criticised from sampling bias.
- Homosexuality was included in DSM
- Kinsley publishes sexuality of the human female.
Who was Evelyn Hooker?
She worked in the US, before moving back to Germany, and then moving back to the US. She found a friend Sam who revealed was gay. She did studies on homosexuality outside of non-prison and non-institution samples (rare at the time). She also determined that homosexuality has no clinical entity as it is varied and that homosexuality may be a deviation in sexual pattern, but it is in normal range.
What was the history of the APA with homosexuality?
Despite Evelyn Hooker’s research, the APA still included homosexuality in the DSM-II from the DSM-I. There were Stonewall Riots in New York and there was an occupation of the APA convention in San Francisco by gay activists - who previously supported the APA as the illness made them seem sympathetic. There another panel which focused on homosexuality (specifically, gay is good) by gay activists (Kameny and Gittings.) But people left the conference and shunned them. Later, a panel with psychiatrists, gay rights activists and Dr. H. Anonymous (a gay psychiatrist - John Fryer). The nomenclature committee changes (definition of mental illness less from normality deviation to subjective unhappiness) and homosexuality was removed from the DSM.
What was the psychoanalysts response to the removal of homosexuality from the DSM?
Irving Bieber stated that homosexuality is the same as having crippled homosexual function. He then argued that it should not be accepted and a ballot should be taken.
What happened with the conversion therapy ballot by the APA?
The ballot showed that 58% were okay with the APAs decision to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder. But to cater to the other 42%, they reprint replacement with sexual orientation distrubance (allowed conversion therapy) in the DSM-II. Later, in the DSM-III, it was named Ego-dystonic homosexuality. This was removed from the DSM-III-R.
How is homosexuality researched today?
There is more focus on the context of a gay person’s life and more research on intra-group stats (not just inter-group). We also shifted from illness to a socio-cultural model, with no longer a use of categorical but more self-descriptions/multiple labels. More research is done on aging LGBTQIA+, intersectionality and their resilience/strength.
How does knowledge change over time?
Not just by data, but by scientific authority. Scientific issues and definitions are decided by data, committees, and votes. But more importantly, outside forces.
