The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

xviii Preface

For those of you who are familiar with

the previous editions, I would like to high-

light some changes that I have made. The

basic structure of the book is the same, but

the information has been substantially up-

dated—not only in terms of more recent

statistics on relationships and health but in

terms of more cutting edge research, such as

work on implicit gender attitudes and brain

imaging studies. I have updated research on

people of different cultures, races, and eth-

nicities and expanded my coverage of gay,

lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT)

persons. I have also integrated the research

on GLBT persons into the text rather than

having separate sections devoted to GLBT

persons or GLBT relationships, which only

served to accentuate differences. I have not

made any major structural changes to the

text. I have streamlined the chapters a bit,

reorganized some topics to provide a more

consistent flow of discussion, and tightened

some lengthy discussions so that the primary

points of an issue are more easily conveyed.

For example, I integrated the leadership and

influenceability sections in Chapter 7, and

integrated the social support discussion in

Chapter 7 with the support and health dis-

cussion in Chapter 11. I tried to break down

complicated theories with visual aids that

highlight key points of the theories. I also

made a semantic change in the language

used throughout the text. I am embarrassed

to reveal that a reviewer pointed out the in-

consistency in educating people about the

use of sexist language and my consistent use

of the phrase “men and women” instead of

“women and men.”

Multiple perspectives on the devel-

opment of differences between men and

women are offered, but the primary perspec-

tive that I emphasize is a social-psycholog-

ical one. I examine gender as an individual

theory. In Chapter 6, I discuss the implications

of gender and gender roles for achievement.

Thus in the first section of this book, I provide

important information on the similarities and

differences between women and men and the

theories that explain any observed differences.

The data and the theories are important for

understanding the subsequent sections of this

book that address the implications of gender

for relationships and health.

The second section of this book be-

gins with a discussion of women’s and

men’s communication and interaction styles

(Chapter 7). These findings have implica-

tions for the specific relationships discussed:

friendship (Chapter 8) and romantic rela-

tionships (Chapter 9). Research on cross-

sex friendship, relationships among sexual

minorities, and friendships at work are in-

cluded in these chapters. The role of gender

in relationships is critical to understanding

the third section of the book, how gender in-

fluences health.

The third section begins with a chapter

that provides an overview of sex differences

in health and theories as to their origins

(Chapter 10). Health is broadly construed in

this book to reflect physical health problems,

such as coronary artery disease, as well as

mental health problems, such as depression

and eating disorders. In Chapter 11, I inves-

tigate how gender affects the association of

relationships to health. The effects of mar-

riage and parenting on health are reviewed in

Chapter 11 as are the effects of relationships

gone awry, specifically domestic abuse and

rape. Chapter 12 presents an examination of

how gender affects the association of work to

health, which includes a substantive discus-

sion of pay disparity and sexual harassment.

The final chapter focuses on the implications

of gender for mental health, specifically, de-

pression, eating disorders, and suicide.

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