The Psychology of an Eating Disorder
Jonna Fries, Veronica Sullivan in Eating Disorders in Special Populations, 2017
Gender socialization. There are, of course, the obvious physical differences between boys and girls but some psychosocial differences have emerged as interest and research grows in the study of gender (Shaffer 1996). A pattern of gender socialization is reinforced by an overall devaluation of women in comparison to men, and women are often socialized into roles involving compliance, care giving, helplessness, as well as a preoccupation with body image and appearance (American Psychological Association 2007). Differential devaluing of girls and women can contribute to higher risks for the development of depression (Jack 1993), anxiety, and eating disorders, as well as poorer outcomes for treatment and recovery (Johnson 2009; Travis 2006). Gender socialization may contribute to lower numbers of eating disorder diagnoses for boys and men because eating disorders are considered by many to be a “woman's issue,” not something that boys or men develop. As a result, males are less likely to report disordered eating concerns and many doctors are likely to underdiagnose eating disorders in males which then results in fewer males being referred for treatment. This delay in diagnoses in males may lead to more serious medical complications. This “female-centric nature of current classification schemes and the consequent lack of appropriate assessment instruments” is a challenge to more effective diagnosis in males of eating disorders as well as body image disorders (Mitchison and Mond 2015).
Sociological Understandings of Death and Dying
Gerry R. Cox, Neil Thompson in Death and Dying, 2020
What the research of Doka and Martin found was that most women prefer an intuitive style, while most men tend to be more comfortable with an instrumental style. Of course, this fits with what we know about gender socialization, by which we mean the process whereby children are taught to think, feel, and behave in ways that are considered appropriate to their respective genders. Girls are generally given more latitude to express their feelings directly and to find comfort in talking about their feelings, while boys, for the most part, try to deal with death in a rational, logical fashion and are uncomfortable in expressing their feelings directly (Silverman & Kelly, 2009). SPIDER: Socialization, the process by which societies “induct” children into their culture by teaching them basic norms, values, and expectations, is a very powerful influence in shaping identity and thus outlook on life.In patriarchal societies, girls are more likely to be encouraged to talk openly about their feelings and to share, while boys are more likely to be encouraged to keep their own counsel, to not show weakness and to be competitive. It is not surprising, then, that a man who has had, say, 41 years of society telling him he must be strong, must not show weakness (especially by crying in public), and must be stoic, will find it difficult to talk openly about painful feelings or allow others to see how deeply they are hurting.
Understanding the Role of Personal Coping Strategy in Decreasing Work and Family Conflict
Cary L. Cooper in Psychological Insights for Understanding COVID-19 and Work, 2020
Gender-role ideology is conceived as beliefs and opinions about the ways that family and work roles do and should differ based on sex (Harris & Firestone, 1998), and these typically lie on a continuum from traditional to egalitarian. Traditional attitudes to gender roles reinforce or conform to expected differences in roles for men and women, while egalitarian attitudes do not believe in role segregation according to gender, and hold more equal views of the roles of women and men at home as well as work. Gender-role attitude, like any other, is learned through experience (Lachman, 1991). Strong forces of socialization and gender-role norms teach children at very young ages that certain roles or jobs are identified with men or with women (Firestone, Harris, & Lambert, 1999). For example, the research of Marini, Fan, Finely, and Beutel (1996) on the influence of job values (i.e., what people want in a job) on youth indicated that these values had a stronger influence on job choice than other background variables.
Sexual Obligation and Perceived Stress: A National Longitudinal Study of Older Adults
Published in Clinical Gerontologist, 2021
Despite a paucity of empirical evidence, there is a theoretical basis to expect that feeling obligated to have sex would be stressful for both older men and women in different ways. Gender socialization theory explains that from a young age, boys and girls learn how to behave in ways socially appropriate according to their gender, and these differences shape their identity as men and women which continue across the life course (Carter, 2014). This socialization explains how men and women act differently in sexual situations and thus experience different impacts on their well-being, as being socialized to be masculine or feminine influences the role they play in their romantic relationships (Impett & Peplau, 2003). For example, the current generation of older adults came of age during a time when traditional gender roles were common and seen as an ideal. These gender roles permeated into sexual relationships, where men had more authority and women were expected to be submissive. Women were socialized to follow men’s sexual desire (Stein, 1989), and a greater cultural expectation falls on women to respond to men’s sexual arousal, even if they do not want to do so, rather than men responding to women’s (Basson, 2000). Consistent with this view, research indicates that women often have sex because they feel it is their obligation or duty to their partner (Impett et al., 2008).
School Networks of Positive Relationships, Attitudes against Violence, and Prevention of Relational Bullying in Victim, Bystander, and Aggressor Agents
Published in Journal of School Violence, 2021
Tatiana Iñiguez- Berrozpe, Santos Orejudo-Hernández, Laura Ruiz-Eugenio, Carmen Elboj-Saso
For all of these reasons, the promotion of positive student interactions with the entire educational community, including family participation in school, and attitudes that reject violence stemming from that socialization (preventive socialization of bullying), seem to act as key elements in the prevention of relational violence in schools in the case of boys as well as girls. This idea, that we explored previously in qualitative studies (Elboj et al., 2009) was included in the recommendations of Spain’s Ministry of Education, which specify that socialization agents (parents, teachers, peer groups) must be attentive to the interactions that influence the socialization of students: conversations in which prejudices are expressed, disputes in the courtyard or hallway, comments that influence gender stereotypes, that value some attitudes and ridicule others, etc. and give an immediate response” (Ministry of Education, 2017).
The Roots and Fruits of Masculinity: Social Antecedents and Sexual Relationship Consequences of Young Men’s Adherence to Masculine Norms
Published in The Journal of Sex Research, 2022
Matthew G. Nielson, L. Monique Ward, Rita C. Seabrook, Soraya Giaccardi
The behaviors and ideologies encapsulated in masculine norms shape and are shaped by interpersonal relationships (Chu et al., 2005; Rogers et al., 2021). Young men live within an interconnected system of socialization influences that simultaneously and reciprocally affect their development Bronfenbrenner and Morris (2006). Among the many forces shaping their norms and expectations are the ideas of their peers (e.g., Van Doorn et al., 2021), parents (e.g., Marcell et al., 2011), and media models (e.g., Coyne et al., 2019). Masculine norms are often homosocial – men perform masculinity because of other men and for other men (Carter et al., 2016; Lamb et al., 2018; Tolman et al., 2016). This reality is explained by intergroup contact theory (Pettigrew, 1998) in which people are more likely to conform to norms set by their in-group in order to avoid prejudice and rejection from those in-group members. Girls and women (such as mothers and female peers) are certainly involved in the socialization of men (e.g., Quayle et al., 2018), but fathers (Kane, 2006; Marcell et al., 2011; Solebello & Elliott, 2016) and male peers (Lamb et al., 2018; Michael, 2009) seem uniquely invested in the heterosexual masculine performance of their sons and friends. For these reasons, we focused on a set of specific socialization agents that heavily include men and male models: fathers, male friends, men’s magazines, music videos, and television dramas and comedies.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Behaviorism
- Developmental Psychology
- Internalization
- Ontogeny
- Social Norm
- Nature Versus Nurture
- Genetics
- Gene–Environment Correlation
- Self-Image
- Looking-Glass Self