Psychology of Women, Fall 2009

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives list the most important ideas and concepts from each chapter.  Look over learning objectives before reading chapter to determine on what to focus.  Use as a study guide when preparing for the exam. You are also responsible for material covered in lecture, in-class videos and demonstrations.

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.      What are some arguments that support a psychology course that focuses on women?

2.      To what do the terms sex and gender refer?  Are these terms used consistently?

3.      What is feminism?  What are the major premises of liberal, cultural, radical, and women-of-color feminism? What common ground or values are shared by various feminist philosophies?  What are differences among these perspectives?

4.      Compare and contrast the similarities and the differences perspectives.  What are basic assumptions underlying these two perspectives?  Do these perspectives match up to any of the theoretical approaches to feminism in item 3? 

5.      Discuss the white-as-normative concept and give examples of when it may be operating.

6.      Describe the psychological approach to investigating questions. What is the typical sequence psychologists follow in conducting research?  How can potential bias influence what occurs at various steps in the research process?  You should also know the meaning of all the highlighted terms in this section.

7.      Describe the four themes of the textbook, providing an example for each theme. 

8.      In what social contexts are gender differences most likely to occur (Theme 1).

 

9.      What is the difference between gender as a subject variable and gender as a stimulus variable?  Give a brief description of a study, be able to identify if gender is a subject or a stimulus variable. (Theme 1 & 2)

10.  What does androcentric mean?  (Theme 3)

11.  In a course called Psychology of Women – what women are we talking about?  Why is it important to consider women’s other social categories (e.g., race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, social class) in addition to gender?  (Theme 4; and pages 13-19)