The Psychology of Gender 4th Edition

Mental Health 517

dissatisfaction among African American

adults (Buchanan et al., 2008).

TAKE HOME POINTS

■ Gender intensification suggests that gender-role norms

become salient during adolescence. One reason that

girls’ depression may increase during adolescence

is that they become aware of the limitations of the

female gender role.

■ A variety of events occur during adolescence—body

image changes, challenges to relationships with parents

and peers—that may pose a greater risk for depres-

sion among girls than boys.

■ Girls not only have a poorer body image than boys

but body image is more strongly related to depression

among girls than boys. Girls are also more likely than

boys to suffer from body objectification, a related cause

of depression.

This concludes our examination of the

theories of depression. There are a variety of

other mental illnesses that are relevant to gen-

der either because they afflict one sex more

than another or because the characteristics of

the disorder are relevant to gender roles. See

Sidebar 13.2 for a discussion of some of these

mental illnesses and Table 13.5 for a list of their

gender-related features. Because there is a large

sex difference in attention deficit hyperactivity

disorder, I elaborate on it in Sidebar 13.3.

women’s feelings of shame increased in the

body objectification condition relative to the

control condition and decreased in the body

competence condition relative to the control

condition. In another study, female college

students completed brief questionnaires on

hand-held computers multiple times a day for

two weeks to assess the relation between body

objectification and affect (Breines, Crocker, &

Garcia, 2008). Daily self-objectification was

related to greater negative affect—but this

effect was limited to those whose self-esteem

was linked to their appearance. Interestingly,

one way to reduce body objectification in young

women is to expose them to images of female

athletes (Daniels, 2009). Assuming the female

athlete is not sexually objectified, these images

should enhance women’s sense of confidence

and competence. Unfortunately, there are times

when women athletes are depicted as sexual

objects. The depiction of Lindsey Vonn, a 2010

gold medalist skier, on the cover ofSports Illus-

trated, raised a furor as some viewers thought

the picture was sexually provocative whereas

others did not.

Among African Americans, body ob-

jectification may occur in relation to skin

tone. Because darker skin tones are asso-

ciated with more discrimination, African

American females may be sensitive to their

skin tone and monitor their body’s skin tone.

One study showed that the habitual moni-

toring of skin tone—a reflection of body

objectification—was associated with body

SIDEBAR 13.2:Gender and Other Mental Illnesses

In general, women are more likely to have higher rates of histrionic and dependent personality

disorders, whereas men are more likely to have higher rates of schizoid, antisocial, and com-

pulsive personality disorders (Winstead & Sanchez, 2005). Women have higher rates of what

are referred to asinternalizing problems(e.g., depression, anxiety), whereas men have higher

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