The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Mental Health 495

up being defined as whatever mental health

problems that women and men exhibit. Even

if men and women do manifest distress in

different ways, we can still ask why women

are more depressed than men and why

men have more problems with alcohol than

women. I now turn to the different theories

that have been developed to account for sex

differences in depression.

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ Sex differences in depression among clinic populations

may be exaggerated to the extent that physicians

overdiagnose depression in women and underdiagnose

depression in men.

■ Sex differences in depression among community popu-

lations may be exaggerated to the extent that men are

less willing than women to admit or recognize symp-

toms of depression.

■ There is some evidence that people respond more nega-

tively to depression in men than in women.

■ It is possible that women and men are equally dis-

tressed, but that they manifest distress in different

ways. Women may show symptoms of depression, and

men may have alcohol problems.

Theories of Depression

Sex differences in depression can be under-

stood by distinguishing between two sets of

factors: susceptibility factors and precipitat-

ing factors (Radloff & Rae, 1979).Suscepti-

bility factorsare innate, usually biological,

factors that place women at greater risk for

depression than men. Hormones or genes

unique to women would be susceptibility

factors. Gender-role socialization, however,

that may be susceptible to differential item

functioning. That is, crying is a symptom of

depression that characterizes women more

than men, even when women and men are

equally depressed. This item could cause

depression to be overdiagnosed in women.

Recent research, however, argues against

differential item functioning, noting that

the items on depression inventories seem to

be related to each other in similar ways for

females and males (Leach, Christensen, &

Mackinnon, 2008).

Other investigators argue that women

and men manifest depressive symptoms

in completely different ways and that male

depression is not tapped by existing in-

struments. Supporters of this view argue

that women display symptoms of depres-

sion, such as sadness, lethargy, and crying,

whereas men are more likely to turn to al-

cohol when depressed. Depression is more

likely to be related to alcohol problems in

males than females (Marcus et al., 2008).

The idea that alcohol and drug prob-

lems are manifestations of depression in men

is not easily refuted. In some sense, the rea-

soning is circular because depression ends

DO GENDER 13.2

Perceptions of

Depression in Women and Men

Interview five people. Ask each of them to

describe how they identify depression in

a series of people, for example, their part-

ner, a parent, a sibling, a friend, a work as-

sociate, and a stranger. Be sure to record

the sex of each of these target people. On

average, do people perceive depression

differently when it is displayed by a female

versus a male?

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