The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Mental Health 493

interact with a male than a female with men-

tal health problems, including depression

(Schnittker, 2000).

I have suggested a couple of reasons

why men might want to deny being de-

pressed. Is there evidence that men do, in

fact, underreport depression? An older

experimental study showed that men are

leery of admitting depressive symptoms. As

shown in Figure 13.3, men were more likely

to endorse depressive items on an instru-

ment labeled “hassles” than an instrument

labeled “depression” (Page & Bennesch,

1993). The label did not affect women’s re-

ports of depression.

A more subtle response bias on the part

of men is that they may be less likely than

women to realize they are depressed or to in-

terpret their symptoms as depression. In other

words, men may fall victim to the same kind

of clinician bias just discussed. Men might

perceive depression as a female problem and

peers are predisposed to identify depression

in a female more than a male.

Response Bias

Because depression is diagnosed based

on the information people provide about

themselves, there may be a response bias

on the part of women and men that con-

tributes to the sex difference in depres-

sion. A common concern is that men are

less likely than women to report depression

because depression is inconsistent with the

male gender role. The termdepressionhas

feminine connotations; it implies a lack

of self-confidence, a lack of control, and

passivity—all of which contradict the tra-

ditional male gender role. Sex differences

in attitudes toward depression appear by

early adolescence. A study of eighth grad-

ers showed that boys said that they would

be less willing than girls to use mental

health services for emotional problems and

viewed people who sought mental health

services as weird and weak (Chandra &

Minkovitz, 2006). Attitudes toward the use

of mental health services becomes more posi-

tive with age, but the sex difference remains

(Gonzales, Alegria, & Prihoda, 2005; MacKenzie,

Gekoski, & Knox, 2006). In a study of nearly

5,000 people in Israel, women were more likely

than men to seek the help of a mental health

care professional for mental health prob-

lems (Levinson & Ifrah, 2010). The sex differ-

ence among adults also seems to be limited to

Whites; Hispanic and African American males

and females have more similar attitudes to

mental health problems.

One reason that men might be less

willing than women to report depression is

that they are concerned that others will view

them negatively. This concern has some ba-

sis in fact. In a national survey, both women

and men reported they were less willing to

Depression

(^0) Depression Hassles
2
4
6
10
8
14
12
Male Female
FIGURE 13.3 Effects of questionnaire label on
self-report of depression. Men were more likely to
report symptoms of depression on a questionnaire
that was labeled “hassles” rather than “depression.”
The label attached to the questionnaire did not in-
fluence women’s reports of depressive symptoms.
Source: Adapted from S. Page and Bennesch (1993).
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