TOWARD A FEMINIST UNDERSTANDING OF WOMEN AND POWER

Both psychologists and feminists believe power is an important and ubiquitous concept, yet its definition and scope eludes both groups. In this introduction to a special issue on women and power, we suggest three points to help organize and interpret research in the area. First, definitions of power should center around the distinction between "power-over," the domination and control of one person or group over another, and "power-to" or personal empowerment. Second, power can be analyzed at different levels—societal, organizational, interpersonal, and individual—and, importantly, these levels interact. Third, power differences frequently underlie what appear to be gender differences in behavior; as society is currently configured, power and gender are never independent. Although the articles in this special issue often ask more questions than they answer, the present volume adds a feminist perspective to the psychological study of power.     

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

The central theme of this article is that a feminist perspective is not only compatible with the history, objectives, and emphases of social psychology, but necessary for its continued vitality. In view of social psychology's humanist roots and its "nurturist" and "social optimist" tenets, it is not surprising that feminist scholarship has flourished within it. Situational factors and group membership—the focus of social psychological inquiry—are also key to understanding how culture constructs gender, a central issue in the feminist agenda. Some of the important women in the early decades of American psychology are claimed as foremothers of social psychology and as feminist voices, and the feminist perspective is defined and identified in terms of its major interrelated themes. The influence of feminist scholarship on contemporary social psychology is illustrated, and it is argued that a feminist perspective will become increasingly more visible.     

EVALUATING THE FEMINIST CHALLENGE TO RESEARCH IN PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY: 1963-1983

Multiple indices for evaluating the feminist challenge in psychology are identified, and provide a context for discussing selected aspects of research in personality and social psychology that reflect the impact of feminism on psychology. Women's involvement in the research process, the types of research methods used, and substantive concerns were examined in selected issues of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology between 1963 and 1983. Despite a significant increase in the proportion of articles with female authors, there were no clear changes in any of the methodological variables we assessed. Comparisons of these studies and those published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly suggest that the impact of the feminist challenge is far more noticeable in this more explicitly feminist journal. Evidence pertaining to the relative impact of publishing in explicitly feminist versus "mainstream" journals, derived from analyses of citation frequency of several feminist studies, was examined. Overall, results suggest that feminist values may have affected research topics more than research methods within personality and social psychology. Several implications of this gatekeeping function of methodology are discussed.     

Why Fat is a Feminist Issue

The proposition that fat is a feminist issue is almost an axiom within the feminist literature. And yet, different feminist scholars see fat as a feminist issue for radically different reasons. An analysis of mainly U.S. research suggests that for some, fat is a symptom of underlying distress and compulsive eating as a coping mechanism for this gendered anguish. For others, higher rates of “obesity” among poor women and women of color is a scandalous form of environmental injustice necessitating policy interventions to combat obesity in these populations. Others have argued that fat is a feminist issue because the fear of being or becoming fat tyrannizes average-size and relatively thin women, limiting their quality of life and often leading to eating disorders. In contrast, Fikkan and Rothblum (2011) argue that fat is a feminist issue because fat women are subjugated to bias, discrimination and abuse precisely because they are fat women. Unlike other approaches, they put actual fat women at the heart of their analysis, comparing their experience to that of both thin women and to fat men. They rightly signal the importance of examining how the social experiences of fat people vary by sex, social class, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation, among other factors. While emphasizing the importance of their perspective, this article advocates that this line of feminist analysis be pushed even further.     

Homo Virtualis: Body,Mind, and Soul in a Virtual World

The virtual reality that stands in the center of the digital revolution is changing the bases of our lives today. This new reality is both a product of the basic human ability of imagination and an essential element of analytical psychology. The close relationship between the activity of imagination and its influence on the body is shown in research results from the oldest known prehistoric figures, dating back between 40,000–30,000 b.c.e., and the experiences derived from the work with robots at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Additionally, how this virtual, body-transforming power is reflected in the current ideas of the transhumanists is examined. In this perspective, the extension of physical abilities via technical skills is a necessary step in human evolution: to transfer the human mind onto a machine as a means of circumventing inherent physical limitations.

The psychodynamics of deep psychological needs, frustrations, and fears are discussed as the motors of technical development. An interpretation of this development, based on the mythological biography of the ancient god Hephaistos, is discussed as showing astonishing parallels to the characteristics of the digital revolution and the transhumanist ideas. Thus, Hephaistos can be understood as an archetypal manifestation of those impulses from the collective unconscious that are significantly affecting our present time. The potentialities as well as the dark sides that are hidden behind such “hephaistic” solutions to deep inner psychological and spiritual conflicts are explored.     

Psychological science in the public arena: Three cases of dubious influence

Psychological science has a great deal to contribute to social welfare in all societies, because the world's most pressing social problems are behavioral in nature—violence, hunger, drug abuse, environmental pollution, low worker productivity, poor educational outcomes, and so forth. Thus, psychological research can inform public policies to improve approaches to these important social problems. The relationship of psychological science to public policy is often troubled, however, by misunderstandings about the role of science in the policy making process. Many scientists fear that their research results will be "misused" by others whose values differ from those of scientists. Thus, psychologists are reluctant to publish research results that can be used to support policies contrary to their own values and hesitate to ask research questions that can generate politically incorrect results. In this article, I argue that psychological science has a primary responsibility to ask dangerous questions and to report results honestly, without fear of their use; that research is not translated directly into public policies; and that psychological science should not be perverted either by fear of political consequences or by compromising truth in a quest for power. Three research examples are given to illustrate the different faces of temptation to pervert psychological science in a misguided hope that scientists' own values will be reflected in public policies.     

Acculturation attitudes, need for cognitive closure, and adaptation of immigrants

The author validated Berry's model of acculturation (J. W. Berry, 1990a, 1990b, 1991; J. W. Berry, U. Kim, S. Power, M. Young, & M. Bujaki, 1989) and examined the relation between acculturation attitudes and sociocultural and psychological adaptation among Croatian and Polish immigrants to Italy, 2 groups whose cultures are not very different from the Italian culture. Moreover, the author investigated the relation between the need for cognitive closure (NCC; M. D. Webster & A. W. Kruglanski, 1994) and psychological and sociocultural adaptation. The participants completed a questionnaire including measures of sociocultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, social relationships, acculturation attitudes, and NCC. The results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed main effects of acculturation strategies for both forms of adaptation and a main effect of NCC for psychological adaptation. The Croatian and Polish immigrants differed in the level of sociocultural adaptation but not in the level of psychological adaptation.     

The Psychosocial Effects of Drone Violence: Social Isolation,Self‐Objectification,and Depoliticization

The U.S.‐led drone program has severe and wide‐ranging psychosocial and political effects on people in targeted areas. This article draws upon the author's interviews with people living under drones in Afghanistan to argue that drone surveillance and bombardment causes social isolation and self‐objectification. Interviewees reported that social gatherings, and any activities that involve nighttime travel, are shortened or avoided out of fear that drone surveillance will spot so‐called “nefarious activity” and bombardment will follow. Drawing upon feminist and postcolonial scholarship, the article contends that drone surveillance constitutes a form of psychological colonization. Civilians are frequently made to think of how they look to drone operators and change their behaviors accordingly—therein “self‐objectifying.” Narratives of “precision” warfare allow citizens of Western liberal democracies leading/supporting the drone program to avoid psychologically confronting these effects, while people living under drones face relentless psychological insecurities.     

HEARING VOICES

This article focuses on the uses of research rather than on research methods per se. It highlights a particular feminist perspective: the importance of returning the results of research to the communities from which they derive. A theoretical rationale for psychological research on social issues argues that such work is inevitably value laden; bears implications for social change; and at its best amounts to a conversation among the researcher, the participants, and the community—one that ought to continue beyond the formal research project. This position is illustrated by two research projects and the means through which their findings were communicated back to lay communities. The unusual products of the research described here—an oratorio and a documentary video—and the process of their development are discussed.     

Disablism,Identity and Self: Discrimination as a Traumatic Assault on Subjectivity

The international disability movement has favoured a political strategy which relies on historical materialism, eschewing subjective aspects of disability. From this perspective, rehabilitationist and psychological constructions of the subjectivities of disabled people are rejected as victim‐blaming pathologisation. Recently, feminist work has begun to explore psychological aspects of the lives of disabled people, within various paradigms. Drawing loosely on ideas from psychoanalysis, this paper explores the impressions left on subjectivity by symbolic assaults often associated with the disabled identity, thus connecting intra‐psychic and socio‐political arenas. The conceptual ideas employed emerged from psychoanalytically oriented group psychotherapy with severely physically impaired adults performed by the first author. The authors argue that the ongoing nature of socially engendered trauma suffered by disabled persons perpetuates marginality, through internalization of self‐punitive psychological defences, which corrode the entitlement necessary for an assertive political movement. Surviving in a world which continually questions one's belonging, leaves little personal resources for debunking oppressive social phenomena. Material as well as discursive changes are essential if internal narratives are to be reclaimed, overcoming the subjective imprints of ongoing social trauma. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrating psychological research on girls with feminist activism: a model for building a liberation psychology in the United States

A liberation psychology is needed to bridge the gap between psychology's focus on individual distress and broad social forces that foster such distress. We offer a model for bridging this gap by focusing on a specific area of psychology (psychological research on girls) and a specific social movement (feminist activism). Psychological research on girls and feminist activism share the common goal of improving the lives of girls and women. However, both have fallen short of this goal. This is due, in part, to the weaknesses associated with each endeavor and to the fact that the complementary strengths of each have remained isolated from the other. In this paper, we propose a common language and shared framework to integrate psychological research with feminist activism. First, we review the basic strengths and weaknesses associated with psychological research and feminist activism, with a particular focus on how they are distinct from one another. Second, we provide a taxonomic framework for integrating these two areas on the basis of the stress paradigm, with specific examples provided from our recent reviews of the literature and our own empirical work with adolescent girls. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for future work needed to integrate psychological research on girls with feminist activism toward the goal of building a liberation psychology in the United States.     

Oppression and discrimination among lesbian,gay, bisexual,and Transgendered people and communities: a challenge for community psychology

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people continue to experience various forms of oppression and discrimination in North America and throughout the world, despite the social, legal, and political advances that have been launched in an attempt to grant LGBT people basic human rights. Even though LGBT people and communities have been actively engaged in community organizing and social action efforts since the early twentieth century, research on LGBT issues has been, for the most part, conspicuously absent within the very field of psychology that is explicitly focused on community research and action–Community Psychology. The psychological and social impact of oppression, rejection, discrimination, harassment, and violence on LGBT people is reviewed, and recent advances in the areas of LGBT health, public policy, and research are detailed. Recent advances within the field of Community Psychology with regard to LGBT research and action are highlighted, and a call to action is offered to integrate the knowledge and skills within LGBT communities with Community Psychology's models of intervention, prevention, and social change in order to build better theory and intervention for LGBT people and communities.     

Reviewing effective components of feminist therapy

Despite the broad application of feminist techniques and advances in defining feminist theory for psychological practice, consensus regarding the effectiveness of core components and techniques specific to feminist therapy is still evolving. This paper identifies four core components of feminist therapy: consciousness raising, social and gender role analysis, resocialization and social activism, and evaluates existing research evaluating their therapeutic effectiveness. Research to date suggests that many of these core components are promising. Future research on each of these key components is proposed.     

BEYOND NONSEXIST RESEARCH

It is the thesis of this article that efforts to identify a distinctive set of "feminist methods" for psychological research are not only futile but unwise. We begin by discussing the defining features of feminist research in psychology. We then evaluate several proposals for distinctively feminist methods in psychology. Suggestions that feminists should avoid experimentation and quantitative research as inherently less feminist than other approaches are considered and rejected, as are criteria based on the sex of the research participants or the researcher. We further argue that the proposed distinction between "agentic" and "communal" approaches to research is misleading. We conclude that any research method can be misused in sexist ways, and that no method comes with a feminist guarantee. Feminist researchers should be skeptical of the limitations of all research methods.     

The modern confessional: Anglo-American religious groups and the emergence of lay psychotherapy

This article reconceives of secularization as a gradual process of increasing interaction between the (social) scientific and spiritual realms by examining the influence of Christian ideas of group confession on lay psychotherapeutic groups in Britain, Canada, and the U.S. in the early twentieth century. This article focuses on three religious group leaders of the interwar period: Frank Buchman (1878-1961), Gerald Heard (1889-1971), and Henry Burton Sharman (1865-1953). Influenced by Natural Theology and the holiness movement, they placed sin and its redemption within the world, reconceiving it as psychological individualism and its redemption as self-sacrifice to the group. This reconception endorsed the moral power of groups and influenced Alcoholics Anonymous and various groups within the Human Potential Movement.     

The Double Standard at Sexual Debut: Gender,Sexual Behavior and Adolescent Peer Acceptance

In this paper, a vision for the future of U.S. NCAA Division I university sport is presented. It is argued that this context could serve as the place where performance “excellence” is rooted in caring. However, U.S. sport at this level must become purposefully structured to include educational components related to moral thinking, feeling, and behaving. Otherwise, it will continue to foster a type of disconnected or “game reasoning” mentality, building “characters” vs. character (Shields & Bredemeier, 1995). Using U.S.-focused feminism as the necessary first intervention, the paper is situated within a care moral orientation (e.g., Gilligan 1979, 1982) as well as sport psychology moral development scholarship (e.g., Bredemeier 1992; Fisher 1993; Kavussanu 2008; Oglesby 1990; Solomon 1993; Stephens 1993). A brief review of the current state of affairs in U.S. NCAA Division I university sport is presented first. Next, selected literature related to a care moral orientation and moral disconnection in U.S. psychology and sport psychology is highlighted. Finally, one vision of what a model of conscious, caring and connected U.S. NCAA Division I sport research and practice could look like is offered. Specifically, those who have the power to influence sport would develop character and the related skills of moral consciousness, caring, and connection, undergirded by feminist moral principles and reflective practice. Feminist (and all) sport psychology professionals are in a prime position to engage with sport constituents to enhance athletes’ overall experience, where character does matter, and, so, too, does performance.     

Silent voices: Notes from a young Muslim woman on acculturation in the United States

This paper examines the gap between a researcher's positionality and theory building; seeing research through the lens of women of color in academia. Drawing on the autobiographical approach in feminist geography, I argue how a researcher's background and life events influence how we produce knowledge in the field by sharing my personal journey. Specifically, I share what it means to be a Middle Eastern Muslim academic conducting research on female immigrants' cultural adaptation process in the U.S. I urge readers to uncover the power of self-reflection, embodied subjectivity and emotions in expanding geographic research and conclude how the future research will benefit from the motives behind each study, as well as giving a reflexive researcher a platform to be heard.     

Psychology and violence against women

The discipline of psychology has made many contributions to the understanding of the social problem of men's violence against women during the past 15 years by reframing the problem as one of misuse of power by men who have been socialized into believing they are entitled to control the women in their lives, even by violent means. The new scientific psychology data base formed by integrating feminist gender analysis methods into more traditional psychological methodology is discussed, as are the implications of the resulting empirical data on which are based newer assessment, treatment, and forensic applications. A review of the major psychological advances in psychotherapy with women who have been sexual assaulted, exploited, and battered is presented, as well as implications for national policy. The feminist model presented is one in which science and practice concerns are carefully considered at all steps of the process. The article concludes with a discussion of the challenges involved in making the future training of psychologists more relevant to women's mental health concerns.     

A Gender Analysis of Theories of Coping with Stress

In this article, various feminist theories are used to critique selected psychological theories of coping with stress, a reformulated coping theory is outlined, and recommendations for future research are made. To date, theories of coping often portray women as less able copers than the samples of men with whom they are compared. A reformulated theory, based on different women's experiences, explicitly examines the role of social forces (sexism, racism) and access to power as variables in the coping process rather than solely focusing on the individual. Selected examples of research that contribute to such a revision are given. Revised theories and methodologies will encourage the more accurate appraisal of women's coping abilities and generate information vital to the creation of more inclusive and representative theories of coping.     

Predicting Outcome of Military Basic Training for Individuals Referred for Psychological Evaluation

We examined outcome data for 632 U.S. Air Force personnel who were referred for psychological evaluation during Basic Military Training (BMT) but who were subsequently returned to BMT to determine what proportion graduated. We analyzed motivational, biographical, and psychological testing variables, using logistic regression to develop a model predictive of training outcome. The results demonstrated that a relatively small number of variables could predict outcome with close to 70% accuracy. Level of optimism regarding training, history of physical abuse, and frequency of visits to the trainee health clinic were major contributors to the model. MMPI-2 (Hathaway & McKinley, 1989) Scales D and Sc also remained in the model but added little to its power. The findings are generally consistent with prior research on normal military populations, except that some factors previously linked to adjustment, such as sex and ethnicity, were found to be unrelated to training outcome in this population.