The Confluence of Psychology and the Study of Gender - Research Paper Example

? Running Head: Psychology and Gender Outline A. Psychology and Gender Study B. Psychology Today Magazine ArticleC. Comparison of the Study and the Article D. Conclusion Psychology and Gender Study In this study, the researcher, a self-declared feminist therapist, looks at the confluence of psychology and the study of gender. She starts by explaining how study in that field is not very popular, everyone knows about psychology but psychology and gender? Everyone feels that that is too narrow field to specialize in – it never has a big class. Even psychologists look down upon the study, making a distinction between psychology work and feminist work and claiming that what she does is more of politics than psychology. In three decades, the field of feminist psychology has grown in leaps and bounds, including coming with many methodological innovations. Feminist psychology has been an all-encompassing endeavour drawing from various areas of psychology, intellectualism and also a wide spectrum of feminist views and perspectives (Marecek, 2001). So she sets out in her study to look at this area and this she does by conducting a very wide and impressive literature review, looking at publications, studies, reviews and documents that discuss the area of psychology and gender. The conclusion, according to the study, is that in the past three decades, there have been many approaches adopted in studying women. The first is the most traditional study of the differences between the genders, which looks at the attributes and characteristics of each of the genders. The second approach looks more at the contextual nature of gender, recognizing that gender differences do not occur in a vacuum but in a continuum that includes social relations, interactive processes and language which form the structure of relations between men and women. The third one views the psychology in a more cultural context and draws on how they work together. Psychology Today Magazine Article This article looks at the psychological study of the differences in brain functioning between men and women. It looks at the work done by pre-eminent researchers who have done a lot of work on the differences between the male brain and the female brain (Kanazawa, 2008). The article, which appears in web version of Psychology Today magazine shows that the major difference between the male and female brain is that whereas the male brain is more concerned with systemizing tendencies and mechanistic thinking while the female brain is more concerned with empathizing tendencies and mentalistic thinking. This therefore means that the male brain is more concerned with understanding how things work out and tries to figure out how a system works and what rules determine how it will work. In contrast the female brain identifies with the other person’s emotions and thoughts and seeks out to understand them and how best to connect with his or her emotions. The article goes on to explain that the current versions of the male and female brains has been caused by the sexual evolution of the two “types” of brains, with the men’s brain development being more linked to competition and the need to be the provider and the hunter and gatherer with all the aggressive tendencies that is required by all these activities. The women’s brains on the other hand evolved with the different tasks of mothering and the need to bond and emotionally connect with infants who are unable to work and the need to link up emotionally with others and make friends and allies in new environments, which happens when they enter into marriage. The article finally shows how these evolved male and female brains manifest themselves in different ways, with the men often spending their time in relationships trying to figure out how their girlfriends work while the women are more concerned with the emotional side of the relationships and tend to try and relate with rather than figure out how their boyfriends’ brains work. Comparison of the Study and the Article Both the study and the article have certain commonalities. They both recognize the existence of gender differences. They both recognize the how the different attributes and characteristics of men women confer on each of the sexes such different impulses, urges and brain functioning. They both show how these differences form the basis for looking at the psychology of men and women in such a different manner. And they both put their stamp of approval on the need to treat the psychology of men and women differently precisely due to these known evolutionary differences. Both the Study and the article are written from an eminently experienced and scientifically respectable position. Neither of them is written by an acknowledged or unknowledgeable neophyte. They also have had access to high quality and well-researched material and respondents. The differences are also numerous. The website article is only the size of, at most, a couple of pages, while the study runs to seventeen pages. The format of the study is much more regimented, with a lot of explanations about everything that was studied and all the nuances of the findings and conclusion, though the Study report is sometimes a bit incoherent and not very easy to follow. The language is also very different. The study includes a lot of scientifically detailed and correct expressions and terms while the website article keeps everything simple, straightforward and even entertaining. The mode of presentation varies due to the different audiences that each is addressing. The study article is intended for students and research professions for whom the details of the study, the methodology, sample frames, the detailed data collected, its analysis and how all these are used to come up with a viable, scientific conclusion are what matters to those researchers. However the write of the website articles wants to quickly catch the attention of someone browsing the website, quickly inform him and then let him go, knowing that that person will not give the kind of attention span required for detailed analysis and detailed methodology and summary. The amount of detail and scientific reasoning required for a scholarly article are the reason why professors prefer students get information from scholarly articles. It is important to do that since then you get information, conclusions and study findings that have stood and passed various tests in terms of the integrity of the process that guarantees the quality of the information in them. For a website article all they are concerned with is getting as many people to read it as possible so for them all they need to do is ensure that the article is catchy whether this means adding pictures or a distinctive title. Conclusion From the Study I was able to learn about the issues that come to play in the area of gender psychology and a great deal of the scientific construct that has gone into the development of this unique area of study and specialization over the last three decades from a researcher who is obviously very enthusiastic, passionate and excited about it and why it matters. I learnt how it is possible to present such information and which is the best way to present it depending on which persons you are presenting it to. The Study and the article show different ways of presenting information that may be about a similar topic in a way that appeals to whichever audience they are presenting it to. For the scholar, the integrity of the research is paramount and if that means having a larger, more detailed document then so be it. I must say I prefer the website article since it presents similar information quickly, precisely and without a lot of fuss or fanfare and detailed jargon. References Kanazawa, S. (2008). Male Brain vs. Female Brain I: Why do Men Try to Figure Out Their Relationships? Why do Women Talk to Their Cars? Psychology Today. Retrieved April 25, 2013, from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/200803/male-brain-vs-female-brain-i-why-do-men-try-figure-out-t-0 Marecek, Jeanne, (Nov 2001). After the facts: Psychology and the study of gender. Canadian Psychology 42. 4 254-267. http://search.proquest.com/docview/220817827?accountid=8289 Read More