The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Relationships and Health 439

6. What determines household divi-
   sion of labor?


7. What is the gender tension line, and
   how has it changed over the past
   20 years?


8. To the extent that parenthood has a
   negative effect on marriage, what are
   the explanations?


9. What are some of the variables that
   moderate the relation of parenthood
   to health?


10. Are men and women equally likely to
    be victims of IPV? Why or why not?


11. What are the differences between
    intimate terrorism and situational
    couple violence?


12. What do you think would be the
    best way to measure the prevalence
    of sexual coercion? How would you
    define it?


13. Why are structural indexes of
    support more strongly related to
    men’s health than women’s
    health?


14. What is the marital selection
    hypothesis?


15. Why does marriage have a stron-
    ger effect on men’s than women’s
    health?


16. What are some of the methodologi-
    cal issues to consider when exam-
    ining the effect of widowhood on
    women’s and men’s health?


17. Given what you know about how
    women and men behave in marriage
    and what women and men get out
    of marriage, what predictions would
    you make about how women and
    men should adjust to separation and
    divorce?

Discussion Questions

of parenting has become an important issue

for homosexuals, especially lesbian mothers.

However, research shows heterosexual and

homosexual parents are similar, and there

are few differences among the children they

raise.

Serious threats to relationships include

IPV and rape. Surprisingly, women are more

likely than men to perpetrate IPV—although

most IPV is mutual. There are different

kinds of IPV. Women are more likely than

men to be victims of intimate terrorism,

but women and men are equally likely to

be victims to the more common situational

couple violence. Intimate terrorism is the

kind of violence that is characterized by

domination and control on the part of males

over females. Intimate terrorism escalates

and poses serious threats to women’s health.

Situational couple violence is the kind of

violence that erupts from stress and does not

escalate.

Rape andsexual coercion are difficult

to define. Although women are more likely

than men to be victims of rape, reports of

sexual coercion are more similar between

women and men. Yet, like IPV, women

report more severe consequences of sexual

coercion compared to men. Perpetrators

of rape are more likely to hold rape myths.

Both rape and sexual coercion are influenced

by situational factors, such as the tendency

to interpret neutral behaviors in sexual

terms.

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