Carnegie Mellon University

Book

Psychology of Gender

genderbook2022.jpgAfter teaching a course titled "Psychology of Gender" for 8 years, I decided to write my own book.  I did this because I thought it was too difficult to go through the large number of empirical articles I wanted to cover in the context of a single course and because there were few, if any, such books on the market.  There were plenty of Psychology of Women books, but I wanted to write a book that reflected the issues that both males and females in our society face.  Here is an excerpt from the preface of the book:

"The purpose of this text is to provide a review of the empirical research and conceptual discussions surrounding gender and to examine the implications of gender for relationships and health. The focus of this book goes beyond sex alone—whether one is biologically male or female—to explore the roles that society has assigned to women and men and the other variables that co-occur with sex, such as status and gender-related traits. The implications of social roles, status, and gender-related traits for relationships and health are examined. This is why the book is entitled The Psychology of Gender rather than The Psychology of Sex. Gender is a term that represents the social and cultural forces that influence men and women in our society. The book discusses the “psychology” of gender because the focus is on the individual in the social context. The primary focus is not on biology and anthropology, although their contributions to the study of gender are included.

Rather than review every topic related to gender, I examine the implications of gender for two broad domains of research: relationships and health. These domains are chosen, first, because they are central to our lives. Friendships, romantic relationships, and relationships at work have a great impact on our day-to-day functioning. Psychological well-being and physical health are important outcomes in their own right. A second reason for the focus on relationships and health is that these are domains in which gender-role socialization plays a prominent role. Observed sex differences cannot be attributed to biology alone; thus, relationships and health are domains that are relevant to the social category of gender."