Women & Psych - 320 - Chapter 6

Emotion - family socialization

-1. parents sometimes treat sons and daughters differently -mothers talk about emotions more with their daughters than with sons -when parents do talk about emotions with their children, its often in a way that conveys gender stereotypes -classic jack in the box study: adults who thought that boy was a baby labeled the emotions as anger and those who thought the baby was a girl labeled the emotions as fear -2. mothers and fathers differ in emotion socialization behaviors -mothers are more emotionally expressive than fathers -mothers talk about emotions more often with their children and are more supportive of their children's negative emotions -mothers are more likely to serve as emotional gatekeepers for children, which involves taking on the work of regulating children's emotions and fostering children's emotional competence -when fathers become more involved with their children, patterns of gendered emotions are different -girls with more involved fathers express less fear and sadness -boys with more involved fathers express more warmth and fear -in essence, fathers' involvement in the family seems to be crucial to breaking down stereotypes in the next generation -3. both parent gender and child gender interact in the socialization of gendered emotions -4. how mothers and fathers response to their children's expression of negative emotions may depend on the child's gender and also differ across ethnic groups -for response to their daughters' negative emotions, mothers were more supportive than fathers in all groups (Euro, Lumbee American Indian, and AA) -in response to their sons' negative emotions, Euro mothers were more supportive than euro fathers, American Indian mothers and fathers were equally supportive, and AA mothers were less supportive than AA fathers -5. Why do parents socialize children's emotions in stereotypical ways? -parents' patterns of socialization likely reflect the roles that they anticipate sons and daughters will hold in adulthood -p. 146-147

Brody's transactional model

-Leslie Brody -proposed a comprehensive model for the development of gender differences in emotional expression and emphasizing the complex interactions among biological, social, and cultural factors -model that emphasizes the bidirectional influences of children and parents, interacting and shaping each other's behaviors -the process begins in infancy with subtle differences in temperament between boys and girls -parents respond to the temperamental traits that they perceive in their children, such as by reinforcing girls' sociability and empathy with more opportunities to develop their social skills and emotional competence -parents also socialize their children in socially acceptable gender-stereotyped ways, preparing them for their adult gender roles -in turn, the subtle gender differences in activity, sociability, language, and self-control develop into meaningful gender differences in emotional expression -as children continue to develop, peers play an increasingly important role in gender role socialization -peers enforce gender stereotypes and gendered displayed rules of emotion, especially in gender-segregated groups -children and teens are motivated to adhere to their gender role and follow the display rules for fear of social exclusion -results in social acceptance in the short-term, but decreased mental and physical well-being in the long term -p. 148-149

Display rules

-a culture's rules for which emotions can be expressed or displayed -ex: in American culture, is it acceptable for people to express happiness, and they are encouraged to do so, but expressions of grief are discouraged -some emotions are acceptable for men, but not for women and vice versa -ex: restriction on boys and men crying ("boys don't cry"); acceptable for men, but not women, to express anger -p. 139

Traditional masculinity ideology

-a set of cultural beliefs about how men and boys should, or should not, think, feel and behave -includes: avoidance of anything feminine; being high status, successful, looked up to; exuding confidence, strength, and self-reliance; being aggressive, tough, and daring -variability across cultures in masculine ideologies because these ideas are shaped by and within cultures; however, there is commonality centering around power and dominance -Ch. 6 Lec.

Emotion - gender stereotype consequences

-anger is male-stereotyped, and sadness is female stereotyped -because we don't expect women to express anger, we may inaccurately perceived and explain their anger -study: -participants rated men's blended/ambiguous faces as significantly angrier than women's and women's blends as significantly sadder than men's -gender affects the emotions we see people displaying, even when the facial expressions are identical -participants rated women's unambiguous anger poses as significantly less angry than men's unambiguous anger poses -gender stereotypes of emotions may also lead us to inaccurately explain or attribute another person's feelings -study: -pictures of faces expressing sadness, fear, anger, and disgust with explanations -then asked to view the pictures again without descriptions and label them as emotional or having a bad day -participants attributed women's emotions to their being more emotion (dispositional, internal attributions for women's emotions) -when men expressed the same emotions, participants made situational, external attributions, attributing men's emotions to their simply having a bad day -gender stereotypes can lead us to ignore information about the situational causes and overemphasized the dispositional causes of women's emotions or exaggerate the situational causes and minimize the dispositional causes of men's emotions -p. 136-137

Socialization of gendered emotions

-between the ages of 2 and 5, children rapidly learn to identify their own emotions and those of others -parents guide this process, socializing their children about how to label and interpret their feelings and what to do with them; in this process, parents are likely to impose gender stereotypes -both family and peers are early socializers of gendered emotions -p. 145

Temperament

-constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, such as emotional intensity, inhibitory control, activity level, and distractibility -a much more trait-like measure than an emotional state; innate -includes traits such as emotionality and the tendency to express specific emotions like anger and fear -meta-analysis: -boys were NOT more prone than girls to express anger (d = 0.04) (no difference) -girls were NOT more emotional than boys (d = 0.01) (no difference) -girls were only slightly more prone than boys to express fear (d = -0.12) and sadness (d = -0.10) -p. 141/ Ch. 6 Lec.

Self-conscious emotions

-emotions about the self, which often have to do with morality or adhering to social norms; includes guilt, shame, pride and embarrassment -gender-stereotypes hold that women experience more guilt, shame, and embarrassment, but men experience more pride -meta-analysis -women and girls report experiencing more guilt (d = -0.27) and shame (d = -0.29) -gender similarities/no difference for embarrassment (d = -0.08) and pride (d = -0.01) -gender differences in emotional experiences may vary across ethnic groups -ex: for guilt and shame, people of color displayed gender similarities but white people displayed gender differences -p. 142

Emotional intensity

-gender differences in self-reported intensity of emotional experience and expression, with women reporting the greater intensity -girls and women use more emotion words and talk about emotion more than boys and men do -powerful vs. powerless emotions -powerful emotions = emotions that function to display one's power and dominance and encourage competition (anger, contempt, and pride); stereotyped as masculine -powerless emotions = emotions that function to display one's vulnerability and maintain harmony within a relationship (fear, sadness, shame, and guilt); stereotyped as feminine -study: -found gender similarities in the experience of powerful emotions; men and women reported experiencing the same intensity of anger and disgust, regardless of culture -women reported experiencing significantly more intense powerless emotions; men's experience of fear, sadness, shame, and guilt was less intense than women's -gender roles may account for the gender difference in intensity of emotion -for women, endorsement of gender stereotypes and reports of intensity of personal emotional experiences are positively correlated; the more than women believe in stereotypes, the more intense they report their own emotions to be -for men, the correlation between endorsement of gender stereotypes and reports of emotional intensity is negative; the more that men believe in gender stereotypes, the less intense their emotions -in essence, stereotypical men do not express emotions and stereotypical women do -study: when men are encouraged to be emotionally expressive, their responses were the same as women's -p. 142-143

Precarious manhood theory

-manhood is an elusive status and that all men are constantly working to achieve it and defend it and that it is easily lost if they show any signs of femininity -men have to constantly demonstrate and defend their masculinity -Ch. 6 Lec.

Specific emotions

-meta-analysis (children's expression): among the female-stereotyped emotions, such as happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, and disgust, gender differences were generally close to zero or very small, with the exception of shame (which was higher in girls) -among the male-stereotyped emotions, findings were mixed -girls expressed more contempt than boys and boys expressed only slightly more anger than girls did -p. 142

Emotion - gender stereotypes

-most emotions are stereotyped as feminine, whereas only a few are stereotyped as masculine or gender neutral -women have long been stereotyped as more emotional than men -stereotype that women experience and express more emotions and do so more intensely -this stereotype is among the most pervasive of gender stereotypes; found in the US and most other cultures -this stereotype can hurt women as they try to succeed in education and the workplace -specific emotions that are appropriate based on one's gender -13/19 emotions were stereotyped as appropriate for women (included positive and negative emotions) most of which conveyed vulnerability and powerlessness -3 emotions were stereotypes as male (anger, contempt, and pride) which were all associated with dominance and power -3 additional emotions that were gender-neutral (amusement, interest, jealousy) -different cultures hold different views on the experience and expression of emotion; substantial variation from one ethnic group to the next in their expectations about which emotions are expressed by women and which are expressed by men (implications on interpersonal interactions = ex: black woman angry and white male boss) -p. 134-136

Emotion - peer socialization

-peers may socialize one another and enforce gendered display rules of emotion -study: -asked teens to imagine how their friends would react if they expressed negative emotions like anger in response to a negative event -girls reported that their friends were likely ask questions about the situation, reward or magnify the emotions, or override the emotions by telling the girl to cheer up -boys reported that their friends would likely ignore or neglect their negative emotions or engage in physical, verbal, or relational victimization -other studies: -boys and girls are socialized differently by their peers when it comes to expressing negative emotions -boys who do express sadness in front of their peers are less accepted and popular and more likely to be teased -essentially, peers are active socializers who enforce gendered display rules about negative emotions such as anger and sadness -p. 148

Emotion - gender stereotype consequences (women)

-regarding women in leadership role: -too much emotional expression violates leadership role -too little emotional expression violates gender role -Double bind (No-win situation) = subordinate group member criticized for acting like member of dominant group but also criticized for failing to be model member of subordinate group; consequence of the gender stereotypes -p. Ch. 6 Lec.

Powerful vs. powerless emotions

-related to emotional intensity -powerful emotions = emotions that function to display one's power and dominance and encourage competition (anger, contempt, and pride); stereotyped as masculine -powerless emotions = emotions that function to display one's vulnerability and maintain harmony within a relationship (fear, sadness, shame, and guilt); stereotyped as feminine -study: -found gender similarities in the experience of powerful emotions; men and women reported experiencing the same intensity of anger and disgust, regardless of culture -women reported experiencing significantly more intense powerless emotions; men's experience of fear, sadness, shame, and guilt was less intense than women's -p. 142-143

Emotion - measurement

-researchers have measured this experience and expression in a variety of ways -there is no one best way to measure it; instead, the difference methods tap into different aspects or modalities -1. Measure physiological aspects of emotion (biological foundations; emphasize plasticity; variety of tests = blood pressure, heart rate, skin conductance, EEG, fMRI, PET) -2. Examine people's own subjective experience of emotion, typically with self-reports (may include checklists or diaries; assumes that people and are aware of the emotions they experience, which is not always true) -3. Focus on emotional expression (look at patterns of facial muscle contraction when the person displays certain emotions; can use visual observations or facial EMG to study; can also study verbal expressions via the number and kind of emotion words people use in speech or writing) -p. 139-140

Emotion - experiences vs. expression

-study: -the researchers used physiological, facial expression, and self-report measures when participants were shown clips that induces various emotions -results: -women tend to be more facially expressive than men (except perhaps for anger), but men, at least for some emotions, show more autonomic nervous system reactivity -this study found that women were more likely to be externalizers = they were more facially expressive but had low skin conductance response -men were more likely to be internalizers = being facially inexpressive but having a higher skin conductance response -this corresponds to the gender role requirement that men restrain or control their emotional expression -gender role identity shows larger effects on emotion response than gender did: androgynous people were more facially expressive than masculine people -p. 140-141

Double bind

-subordinate group member criticized for acting like member of dominant group but also criticized for failing to be model member of subordinate group -related to women in leadership roles/consequence of gender stereotypes (too much emotional expression violates leadership role and too little emotional expression violates gender role) -no-win situation -consequence of the gender stereotypes -Ch. 6 Lec.

Emotional competence

-the ability to perceive, appraise, and express emotions accurately and clearly; to understand, analyze, and use knowledge about emotions to think and make decisions; and to regulate the emotions of oneself and others -aka emotional intelligence -on most of these abilities, women score higher them men: -women tend to display more complex emotion knowledge when describing how others might feel in a hypothetical situations -girls are better at regulating their emotions than their male classmates -women are more skilled at recognizing the emotions of others, whether in photos, films, or audio recording (d = -0.27) -women demonstrate more awareness of their own emotions and seem to encode their emotional experience in more detail in memory than men do -women are generally more accurate decoding nonverbal cues (reading body language and facial expressions) -girls are better than boys at displaying socially appropriate emotions/masking socially inappropriate behaviors/feigning polite emotions -when motivated, men can be just as emotionally competent as women are -unlike the female gender role, the male gender role does not entail many aspects of emotional competence -one area of emotional competence in which women do not seem to do as well as men is some aspects of emotion regulation -p. 144