Carolyn W. Sherif

Needed Concepts in the Study of Gender Identity.

On the 18th-century frontiers of the Virginia highland, weary travelers were fortunate to arrive by nightfall at a log cabin called a “necessary.” The “necessary” provided the bare essentials of shelter, food and drink, enabling them to continue the journey on the next day into the wilderness. The concepts I shall discuss are needed in psychology’s “necessary” to enable the difficult journey toward understanding the psychology of being woman in a social context. Today’s psychology is more like a luxury hotel, offering the traveler a superabundance of conceptual tools. I would perform no service by adding new concepts to the bewildering array that already includes gender identity, sex identity, sex roles and sex role identities, masculinity, femininity, sex-reversed identity, androgyny (high and “undifferentiated”), etc. The plethora of concepts is complicated by the several definitions given to each by different authors. “Gender identity” means different things to different people. Some broad definitions encompass everything it means to feel, think and act like a woman or man. More specific definitions are modeled on social stereotypes of masculinity or femininity and on androgyny. Other normative definitions require acceptance of one’s biological sexuality, hence presumably of certain social meanings attached to it. Our concepts should be capable of handling such evaluative issues, but they should not be evaluative concepts. Therefore, I will start naively with the first needed concept, and ask what gender is. Gender is a

The effectiveness of men and women in problem-solving groups as a function of group gender composition

Previous research suggests that the fewer women in a group, the less likely their ideas will be considered. The present study was designed to test the effect of gender composition on womens influence. Thirty groups were asked to solve two problems, first as individuals, then as groups. Composition and gender of the subject receiving a helpful clue were varied. Subjects rated the second task and members of the group, and a Bales Interaction Analysis was conducted. Results indicated that men were more influential than women only when in the minority, that women had smaller proportions of leadership acts than men, and that some stereotyped attitudes existed. Results were discussed in terms of previous findings, and suggestions for future research were made.

JUDGMENTS OF TRUTH BY PARTICIPANTS IN COLLECTIVE CONTROVERSY

This study uses the Oklahoma battle over prohibition repeal in 1959 to investigate the ways in which participants assessed the truth of conflicting statements of fact. How were such assessments related to the stand taken by the persons reference group? How did the degree of a persons involvement in the controversy affect the assessment? In making judgments participants on both sides followed common psychological principles, which are carefully explained. Dr. Sherif is Research Associate at the Institute of Group Relations at the University of Oklahoma, and Visiting Associate Professor of Psychology at Pennsylvania State University for 1965-1966. Dr. Jackman is Professor of Sociology at California State College at Hayward.

Toward Understanding WomenTOWARD UNDERSTANDING WOMEN. O'LearyVirginia E.. Monterey, California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1977, 253 pp. + viii.

Any psychology text on women has to deal with an older literature dominated by psychoanalytic or other “psychodynamic” perspectives and by the ragbag of research on ”sex differences’’ in the differential psychology tradition. How an author deals with these residues is one test of a new text. On both scores, O’Leary’s book earns superior marks. Developing from a 1971 seminar and subsequent course, the book introduces psychology’s invidious treatment of women and the impact of the women’s movement. A social-psychological perspective dealing with interactions among ”biological and cultural factors’’ is seen as necessary to handle the psychological phenomena of women’s lives, not as mere personal preference of the writer. Such a perspective contrasts with those starting with a biological base (then regarding culture either as a derivative from the base or as an arbitrary complication to what is regarded as ”natural”) and those based solely on cultural analysis (with biology declared universal, hence irrelevant, or viewed as a messy nuisance). Aiming the text at students with limited background in psychology, O’Leary assumes that presentation of the ”biological facts” of female development early on wil l clear the ground for discussing psychological theories. Thus the second chapter gives an overview of sexual differentiation from conception through physiological changes during the life span, increasingly emphasizing the necessity of dealing with associated psychological changes within their social contexts ( e g , cultural stereotypes about menstruation, role changes with childbirth and during climacterium). Indeed, that background does clarify the real difficulties in the most popular theories on what i s here called “sex-role development” (Chapter 3). They are simplistic. This reviewer is grateful to O’Leary for spending only a bit over three pages on Freudian theory and the equally outlandish “evidence“ used to buttress its “popular” but “incorrect” assumptions. In contrast, authors of several other recent texts appear to take pride in “being fair”

8.95 (paper).

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Interdisciplinary Relationships in the Social Sciences.

No wonder you activities are, reading will be always needed. It is not only to fulfil the duties that you need to finish in deadline time. Reading will encourage your mind and thoughts. Of course, reading will greatly develop your experiences about everything. Reading groups in harmony and tension an integration of studies on intergroup relations is also a way as one of the collective books that gives many advantages. The advantages are not only for you, but for the other peoples with those meaningful benefits.