Gender, 1st Edition, Miriam Liss, Kate
Richmond Mindy J Erchull
,Chapter 1: A Feminist Psychology of Women
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1.1 A Feminist Psychology for Modern Girls and Women
1.1a. Define feminist psychology and explain how it applies to oppression.
1.1b. Differentiate between feminist psychology and general psychology.
1.1c. List some of the social and current events that feminist psychology addresses.
1.1d. Hypothesize how feminist psychology could be applied to an issue faced by college students,
such as sexual violence on campus, coming out as LGBTQ, or another issue of your choice.
1.1e. Evaluate how the concept of the “half-changed world” applies to feminist psychology.
1.1f. Recognize the existing problems faced by girls and women despite the progress made by
feminism.
1.2 Feminism: Riding the Waves
1.2a. Identify the four “waves” of feminism and list one event from each wave.
1.2b. Illustrate how one “wave” and its associated events currently impact your life as a feminist
psychology student.
1.2c. Recognize oppression and how it manifests for the individual woman based on unique
intersectional identities.
1.3 The F-Word
1.3a. List and describe the seven major perspectives of feminism
1.3b. Differentiate between the branches of feminism.
1.3c. Summarize the perspective of feminism that appeals to you most and explain why this
perspective applies to your personal ethics as a feminist psychologist.
1.3d. Evaluate the weaknesses of one perspective of feminism. Hypothesize how this perspective
could be revised to be more applicable to your studies and daily life.
1.4 I’m Not a Feminist, But...
1.4a. Justify the relevance of feminist psychology despite the emergence of post-feminism.
1.4b. Propose some of the consequences of post-feminism and not identifying as a feminist.
1.5 Who Is a Feminist?
1.5a. Identify why a member of certain social groups or minorities may be reluctant to identify as a
feminist.
1.5b. Assess why womanism is a more relevant perspective of feminism for some women of color.
1.5c. Illustrate some of the benefits and consequences of feminist identification. Consider the impact
that feminist identification has on minority or disenfranchised populations.
1.6 Feminism Comes to Psychology
1.6a. Restate some of the experiences of women in psychology from the late 19th century through the
mid-20th century.
1.6b. Identify three factors that contributed to and signaled the formation of the psychology of
women.
1.6c. Assess how feminists have challenged the production and interpretation of knowledge,
including how feminist epistemologies inform the practice of psychology.
1.7 Understanding Research Methods
1.7a. List some of the elements of the research process needed to accurately critique research on
the psychology of women and gender.
1.7b. Describe the key differences between experimental and correlational design. Provide one
example of each.
1.8 Identifying Sex/Gender Bias in Research
, 1.8a. Summarize how your own identities could potentially contribute to bias in sex and gender
research.
1.8b. Propose a research question that minimizes bias based on feminist principles addressed in this
chapter. Justify how your research question addresses potential bias.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Psychology of women is most accurately described as a subfield of psychology that focuses
a. explicitly on the tenets of feminism.
b. on the lives of girls and women, with the inclusion of political and social movements.
c. on biological determinism and the differences between women and men.
d. on the downturn faced by female adolescents as they become more susceptible to eating
disorders and social stereotypes.
ANS: B DIF: Medium
REF: 1.1 A Feminist Psychology for Modern Girls and Women
OBJ: 1.1b MSC: Understanding
2. Feminism, according to bell hooks, is described as
a. a womanist/women of color approach to feminism.
b. being accessible to everyone.
c. unnecessary after the third and fourth wave of feminism.
d. a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.
ANS: D DIF: Easy
REF: 1.1 A Feminist Psychology for Modern Girls and Women
OBJ: 1.1a MSC: Remembering
3. In terms of its values and overall perspective, feminist psychology is
a. individual and non-interdisciplinary.
b. objective and value-neutral.
c. explicit and transparent.
d. unnecessary and dated.
ANS: C DIF: Easy
REF: 1.1 A Feminist Psychology for Modern Girls and Women
OBJ: 1.1a MSC: Understanding
4. Patricia has cerebral palsy, a type of physical disability. She is more likely to face degradation due to her
economic and social realities, including poverty, lack of access to accessible housing, and a lack of
opportunities in the workplace despite educational attainment. She is also more likely to be physically or
sexually mistreated by a partner. This scenario is an example of
a. systemic racism.
b. oppression.
c. the personal is political.
d. the half-changed world.
ANS: B DIF: Medium
REF: 1.1 A Feminist Psychology for Modern Girls and Women
OBJ: 1.1a MSC: Applying
5. Emma Watson’s 2014 #heforshe campaign addressed underlying social issues around gender by asking
men to consider which of the following?
a. how gender stereotypes are harmful for both men and women
b. the positive aspects of toxic masculinity