This article discusses issues associated with the study of sex differences by psychologists. The author discusses definitions of sex as a subject variable and as a stimulus variable. The term gender is introduced for those characteristics and traits socioculturally considered appropriate to males and females. The rationale for this addition to the psychological vocabulary is that the term sex implies biological mechanisms. Differences between females and males that are merely descriptive are frequently assumed to have biological origins. The present terminology facilitates biologically determinist models of sex differences which make it less likely that environmental sources of such differences will be explored.The author examines the area of sex differences in cerebral laterality to illustrate this process. In contrast, research on gender is more concerned with the sociocultural factors that contribute to sex differences.The author suggests that differential use of the term sex indicates different paradigms for the examination of sex differences and that psychological terminology should reflect this distinction.
This article discusses the relationship between conceptual frameworks and methodology in psychology. It is argued that our models of reality influence our research in terms of question selection, causal factors hypothesized, and interpretation of data. The position and role of women as objects and agents of research are considered in terms of a sociology of knowledge perspective. Suggestions are offered for a more reflexive psychology.
The world view of students was investigated by measuring covert causal assumptions about the relationship between the person and physical and social reality. The Attitudes About Reality Scale was designed to measure a philosophical dimension ranging between a belief in social constructionism and a belief in logical positivism. These personal epistemologies are related to demographic markers such as religion and birth order, and to experiential variables such as age and sociopolitical identification. Personal epistemology may predispose individuals to seek courses with a content that is consonant with their preexistent ideology. Epistemological position, however, appears changed only slightly by exposure to courses whose paradigmatic focus emphasizes a particular relationship between the person and reality.Psychologists are becoming increasingly aware that the pursuit of knowledge is not value free. Personal experience can sensitize people to different aspects of problems and leads some to question the assumptions taken as selfevident by others lacking such experience. Correspondingly, demographic variables-seen as biographical markers of differential experience-are significantly correlated with personal epistemology. Personal epistemology may serve as one of the mechanisms by which past circumstances influence present judgments. The relationship between personal epistemology and personal experience is probably a reflexive one. Although the past influences the present, the past may also be reconstructed by present experience and new social identities. Such changes are marked by changes in personal epistemology.
This talk is a result of a number of questions that I have been thinking about for many years. (1) Why do many people acquiesce to beliefs that are harmful to themselves as members of devalued groups? (2) What kind of people resist collective stereotypes and attempt to change them (and, how can we increase their numbers)? (3) Is it possible for people to reframe a seemingly negative characteristic and use it as an agent of both personal and social change?Obviously, these questions cannot be answered simply: Any of them would require a book-length discussion (which would probably end with the comment that further research is needed). Today, I will argue that psychology has sought its answers from the wrong people and at the wrong level of analysis. Rather than focusing on laboratory studies of college students, I will examine some characteristics of SPSSI leaders in historical perspective. Data from a sample of self-selected activists indicates a complex interplay of internal and external variables. I will try to show that although demographics may predict marginality, consciousness determines whether marginality becomes activism.
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