Gender and Culture in Psychology
Theories and Practices

Introduction to psychology of gender that anchors psychological life and personal meaning in social interchanges, language, societal structures and culture.

Eva Magnusson (Author), Jeanne Marecek (Author)

9781107018037, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 February 2012

238 pages
23.3 x 15.8 x 1.5 cm, 0.5 kg

'This book will delight readers searching for an accessible yet sophisticated introduction to a more contextual approach to psychology. Integrative and engaging, it is a treasure chest of ideas and examples drawn from across and beyond the discipline. This is a timely and important book that is likely to inspire a new generation of students and scholars with tools to do psychology differently.' Nicola Gavey, University of Auckland

Gender and Culture in Psychology introduces new approaches to the psychological study of gender that bring together feminist psychology, socio-cultural psychology, discursive psychology and critical psychology. It presents research and theory that embed human action in social, cultural and interpersonal contexts. The book provides conceptual tools for thinking about gender, social categorization, human meaning-making, and culture. It also describes a family of interpretative research methods that focus on rich talk and everyday life. It provides a close-in view of how interpretative research proceeds. The latter part of the book showcases innovative projects that investigate topics of concern to feminist scholars and activists: young teens' encounters with heterosexual norms; women and men negotiating household duties and childcare; sexual coercion and violence in heterosexual encounters; the cultural politics of women's weight and eating concerns; psychiatric labelling of psychological suffering; and feminism in psychotherapy.

Preface
1. Gender and culture in psychology: a prologue
2. Categories and social categorization
3. Laying the foundation
4. Theories of gender in psychology: an overview
5. A turn to interpretation
6. Doing interpretative psychological research
7. Discursive approaches to studying gender and culture
8. Gender and culture in children's identity development
9. Identity and inequality in heterosexual couples
10. Coercion, violence and consent in heterosexual encounters
11. Women's eating problems and the cultural meanings of body size
12. Psychological suffering in social and cultural contexts
13. Feminism and gender in psychotherapy
14. Comparing women and men: a retrospective on sex difference research
15. Psychology's place in society and society's place in psychology.

Subject Areas: Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Psychology of gender [JMG], Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Feminism & feminist theory [JFFK], Cultural studies [JFC]