Critical Psychology: Chapter Eight

Question 1

Define Gender

Answer 1

concept usually referring to the social construction of inherent sexual differences between men and women. most gender theorist assume that gender is social whereas sex is biological, and most also hold that the term encapsulates a notion of power inequality.

Question 2

The need to develop a South African psychology of gender that is both local and critical is another challenged within the broader transformation. name the two levels.

Answer 2

1. Local level: representing indigenous experiences of gender development and identities
2. Critical level: It problematises the construction of gender differences and inequality.

Question 3

Define Discourse

Answer 3

complex term that Foucault used to refer to bodies of practice that from the objects of which we speak. he analysed professional discourses on sexuality as constructing sexuality as we know it.

Question 4

Define heterosexist

Answer 4

assumption that all sexuality refers to heterosexual practices and that the ideal, acceptable and normal sexual practices are those between men and women. such values and practices are discriminatory and oppressive.

Question 5

Define homophobia

Answer 5

rejection of homosexual practices and lifestyles. it frequently emerges in negative prejudicial attitudes and stereotypes and discriminatory and violent practices towards gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

Question 6

Define unitary sexual character

Answer 6

idea that masculinity and femineity exist as a collection of trats, roles abilities and temperaments which are embedded in individual men and women.

Question 7

Define difference discourse

Answer 7

the depiction of gender a difference (biological or social)

Question 8

Define feminist

Answer 8

umbrella term for a large and diverse body of work that broadly explores women’s sub-ordination in male-dominated societies. all feminist work has in common the goal of challenging gender power inequality.

Question 9

Define androcentric

Answer 9

referring to a discipline or practice that is centred about masculinity or men. feminists have criticised science and knowledge production as being created by men and for men, and therefore representing male experiences and concerns.

Question 10

Define Polarised

Answer 10

to cause to concentrate about two conflicting or contrasting positions

Question 11

What is the scalar/androgyny model?

Answer 11

conceptual schema that hypothesises a continuum of gender from dominant male to dominant female characteristics. a personality that scores high on both male and female characteristics is named androgynous.

Question 12

Define Androgyny

Answer 12

term used to describe a personality characterised by a good balance of traditionally male and female attributes

Question 13

Define normative

Answer 13

referring to behaviours and practices that are viewed as normal and correct in a particular social context psychology plays a partial role in the processes and regulation of socially constructed standards of normality.

Question 14

Define alpha bias

Answer 14

representation of gender that see huge differences between males and females and that often idealise or try to legitimate such perceived differences.

Question 15

Define beta bias

Answer 15

representations of gender that see few differences between male and females

Question 16

hare-Mustin & Maracek argue that these two opposing lines of inquiry have led to two incompatible representations of gender. name and describe both.

Answer 16

1. Beta bias: sees few differences between males and females
2. Alpha bias: sees huge differences and often idealises or legitimates these differences or calls for a reintegration of the differences.

Question 17

The suggest both alpha and beta biases have their own inherent problems. Name them.

Answer 17

1. Alpha bias is exaggerating differences and therefore providing justification for differential, unequal treatments of men and women.
2. Beta bias in de-emphasising differences, thus allowing for the obfuscation of women’s special needs or for redressing the inequality.

Question 18

Define pathologisation

Answer 18

the act of unfairly or wrongly considering something or someone as a problem, especially a medical problem.

Question 19

Define post-structuralist

Answer 19

referring to the more theoretical and philosophical side of the post-modern era, characterised by a paradigm shift from structuralist thinking to an acknowledgment of the shifting, non-fixed and fluid relationships between “things” for example the sifnifier and signified langauge.

Question 20

Define post-modern

Answer 20

complex term referring to both a period of time and a theoretical paradigm.

Question 21

Name the three contemporary theoretical field of post-structuralism

Answer 21

• queer theory
• post structuralism
• feminism

Question 22

Define queer theory

Answer 22

a collection of theoretical thinking which is critical of traditional notions of gender, sex and sexuality. such theories posit notions of multiple genders and sexualities which are not necessarily linked to each other in the rigid way we normally think of biological sex in heterosexual terms.

Question 23

Define Binary

Answer 23

referring to socially constructed polar opposites such as man/woman, white/black

Question 24

As human beings, within the dominant discourses which prescribe gender identity we are what? (3)

Answer 24

1. we are sexed: in that we are named male or female. (biologically)
2. we are gendered: in that we are named male or female with a whole range of prescriptions about dress, behaviour, roles etc to go with it.
3. we are sexualised: in that we are named heterosexual. usually assumed, unless proven otherwise or homosexual based on our sexual intimacies or desires with/toward other genders

Question 25

Define performativity

Answer 25

notion that we create our genders by doing them. through discourses on gender, we are provided with the tools to enact and re-enact our gender, which is viewed as an ongoing repetitive process and by which gendered subjectivity is produced.

Question 26

describe the notion of the subject in the feminist post structuralist agency and resistance.

Answer 26

• the subject is active in repeating dominant constructions of himself or herself as man/woman but may also be active in resisting and defying such constructions
• subjects may take on forms of gendered subjectivity which challenge the dominant discourses
  there forms of subjectivity, as with other subversive subjectivities will be policed, often marginalised as insane or criminal or incorporated into hegemonic culture in ways that diffuse the challenge they are making.

Question 27

Butler points out “agency” has usually been falsely presumed to be what?

Answer 27

1. either established through recourse to some stable identity prior to discourse
2. or not possible within the discursive reading of subjectivity where it is constructed as a determination

Question 28

What does signification refer to?

Answer 28

the use of signs or more accurately signifiers (that is, spoken or written words) to make meaning of the world through representation of concepts or ideas (signifields)