Social Psychology of Female-Male Relations: A Critical Analysis of Central Concepts

by Frances K. Del Boca (editor)

The Social Psychology of Female-Male A Critical Analysis of Central Concepts covers the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals in social interaction and explicitly considers women and men in relation to one another - as individuals, as representatives of social categories, and as significant social groups.Chapter One lays out the parameters of the social psychology of female-male relations. Chapter Two contains two major that gender identity is a complex, multifaceted construct and that the structure and degree of differentiation of gender identity develop and change over the life course. Chapters Three and Four present a relatively general cognitive social-psychological framework for two important constructs, sex stereotypes and gender-related attitudes. Chapter Five offers a critique of analyses that explain the behavior of women and men in close, personal relationships in terms of sex differences in the individual dispositions of the participants. Chapter Six presents a strong and straightforward critique of the current usage of the term sex role to describe a global set of behavioral prescriptions that apply to all women and to all men. Chapter Seven presents a comprehensive review of research on gender-related patterns of behavior in task groups that cannot be found elsewhere. The concluding chapter summarizes points made in earlier chapters and offers a set of notes toward a theory of female-male relations.Social scientists (especially, psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists) doing research on women, on men, or on women and men in relationships or in social interaction.

351 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1985