Chapter 3

Question 1

What is androgyny?

Answer 1

Sandra Bem, “the combined pres-ence of the socially valued, stereotypic, feminine, and masculine characteristics.”

Question 2

What is castration anxiety?

Answer 2

Freud, a deep-seated fear of castration arising when boys see female geni-talia and conclude that girls and women have been castrated

Question 3

How did Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg understand the cognitive development theory?

Answer 3

Jean Piaget, arguing that mental development takes place in a set of relatively orderly and discrete stages involving greater com-plexity at each level
Lawrence Kohlberg applied this to gender acquisition, arguing that children
“learn” gender cognitively, according to their level of reasoning at different stage

Question 4

What is the cult of compulsive masculinity?

Answer 4

Talcott Par-sons’ theorized result of the long period of con-tact with femininity characteristic of boys in modern nuclear families. Because boys must rebel against femininity, being a “bad boy” becomes a way of establishing a masculine identity
this “cult” is associated with hypermasculine and/or violent behaviour

Question 5

What is ego?

Answer 5

component of Freud’s concept of the psyche. It is the rational, problem-solving por-tion of our personality that translates id im-pulses into effective strategies for gratification

Question 6

What is Electra complex?

Answer 6

describes a girl’s situation during the Oedipal crisis, when she, like the boy, discovers the anatomical distinction between the sexes and believes that she and her mother have been cas-trated. Experiencing “penis envy” as a result, she first transfers her desire to her father, competing with her mother

Question 7

What is the ethic of care?

Answer 7

Carol Gilligan’s term for the mode of moral reasoning she found more prevalent in women than in men. This “different voice” makes moral judgments on the basis of the inter-dependence of human beings and the effects of actions on them

Question 8

What is the ethic of justice?

Answer 8

Carol Gilligan’s term for the mode of reasoning she sees as more character-istic of men and of institutions in Western soci-ety; ethic of justice describes moral reasoning based on principle and abstract concepts of jus-tice

Question 9

What are expressive roles?

Answer 9

Talcott Parsons, roles, existing to perpetuate the kinship system, that demand tenderness and nurturing

Question 10

What is the external world?

Answer 10

fourth component of Freud’s notion of the psyche; the external world is experienced as frequently thwarting the id’s desire

Question 11

What is gender constancy?

Answer 11

Lawrence Kohlberg’s con-cept to explain children’s realization, at approx-imately age six, that gender is permanent and fixed.

Question 12

What are gender schemas?

Answer 12

assess traits, behaviours, personalities, and occupations as “for males” or “for females.”

Question 13

What is gender schema theory?

Answer 13

developed by Sandra Bem, the idea that though children do de-velop ideas of gender through gender schemas, adults vary in the rigidity of their schemas. The healthiest individuals, Bem argued, were those with less polarized views of gender

Question 14

What is the gender similarities hypothesis?

Answer 14

Janet Hyde, the hypothesis that men and women are “similar on most, but not all, psychological variables.”

Question 15

What is id?

Answer 15

component of Freud’s concept of the psyche. It represents basic animal needs, and “knows” only that it wants gratification

Question 16

What are instrumental roles?

Answer 16

Talcott Parsons, roles that exist to perpetuate the occupational system. They demand rationality, autonomy, and com-petitiveness

Question 17

What is male sex role identity (MSRI)?

Answer 17

Joseph Pleck’s model of the often-contradictory propositions associated with masculine roles.

Question 18

What is male sex role strain (MSRS)?

Answer 18

Joseph Pleck’s theory that, given the contradictory and damaging nature of the MSRI, male “problems” were the result not of men’s failures to acquire mascu-line gender identities, but of the sex role itself
1. Sex roles are operationally defined by sex-role stereotypes and norms. 2. Sex roles are contradictory and inconsistent. 3. The proportion of individuals who violate sex roles is high. 4. Violating sex roles leads to social condemnation. 5. Violating sex roles leads to negative psychological consequences. 6. Actual or imagined violation of sex roles leads individuals to over conform to them. 7. Violating sex roles has more severe consequences for males than females. 8. Certain characteristics prescribed by sex roles are psychologically dysfunctional. 9. Each gender experiences sex-role strain in its work and family roles. 10. Historical changes cause sex-role strai

Question 19

What is the M-F test?

Answer 19

multi-component test designed by Lewis Terman and Catherine Miles and used for over 30 years to assess “successful” acquisi-tion of masculine or feminine gender identity

Question 20

What is the object-relations theory?

Answer 20

body of theory iden-tified with Melanie Klein that emphasizes the role of the external world or “others” (both other people and imagined others such as “The Breast”) in the development of the personality

Question 21

What is the Oedipal crisis?

Answer 21

the critical part of the genital stage during which a boy learns to desire sex with women, repudiate fem-ininity, and identify as a man. The boy initially desires his mother, whom he sees as being cas-trated, and seeks to replace his father. His fear of castration by his father leads him to instead identify with his father and defer his desire for his mother until adulthood, when it is trans-ferred to other women.

Question 22

What is penis envy?

Answer 22

describes the girl’s assumed reaction to her discovery of anatomical sex difference, which she, like the boy, views as the “castration” of the female

Question 23

What is the primary feminine phase?

Answer 23

Klein and other psychoanalysts, the phase in which a child (of either sex) comes to identify with the mother and her desire for the father

Question 24

What is psychoanalysis?

Answer 24

umbrella term for a diverse body of theory and practice based upon the theories of mind and personality developed by Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalysis extends beyond the study and treatment of individual personal-ity to theories of social organization.

Question 25

What is the sex-role theory?

Answer 25

studies individuals’ socialization into gender roles and acquisition of gender identities

Question 26

What are social psychologists?

Answer 26

Either sociologists or psy-chologists, scholars in the field of social psychol-ogy, study individual psychology as the result of interactions between individuals and their envi-ronments, whether defined as “other people” or as institutions and social structures

Question 27

What is the superego?

Answer 27

component of Freud’s concept of the psyche, the super-ego is an outgrowth of ego’s efforts to seek acceptable outlets for id’s gratifica-tion. Freud saw super-ego as the seat of morality, accepting of the legitimacy of social limitations on gratification

Question 28

What is womb envy?

Answer 28

Karen Horney, that argues that males envy women’s potential to give birth and therefore both dispar-age and seek to dominate women

Question 29

Some people believe that Freud’s theories have been totally discredited and serve no further purpose. Would you agree? Which, if any, of his theories do you see as having merit? How have Freud’s ideas remained active in popular culture and belief?

Answer 29

I would agree that freud’s theories should be discredited because of the reliability issues

In popular culture the idea around boys finding their mothers attractive, vice versa for girls has seem to evolve into “mommy” and “daddy” being sexual terms for an older person they deem attractive (same with DILF and MILF)

Question 30

Have you ever seen “overcompensation” in action? Do you agree with Bem’s conclusion that the healthiest individuals are least likely to be hypermasculine or hyperfeminine? If so, why do you think this might be so?

Answer 30

Yes I agree because they don’t have harmful thoughts on how they should act as with a girl or boy/ their assumptions on the world around them and how they expect men/women to act