Feminism and Health in the Decade of Behavior

National health data are presented to demonstrate that important issues of women's health are linked to inequality and to the generalized oppression of women. Health issues of violence, reproductive health, coronary health, and mental health are reviewed as they relate to women of color and diverse ethnicity as well as to women in general. Feminist principles are applied to these issues, pointing out inequalities in assessment, treatment and access to care, bias in research and lack of research on topics particularly relevant to women and minorities, and limitations in the education and training of health care providers. It is imperative that these problems, which are not solely biological, be addressed in light of systems-level analysis that includes a feminist lens. Guided by feminist principles and sensibilities, the relevance of behavioral and social science is outlined for research, training, assessment, intervention, evaluation, and overall social change.     

FEMINIST CONTRIBUTIONS TO HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY

A brief review of health psychology shows that the early leadership began what has come to be a major alternative to traditional medical models of diagnosis and treatment. Numerous women were involved with these implementations and changes in the field. Many of the key developments within health psychology—for example, behavioral prevention, compliance, coping, health promotion, locus of control, and social support—reflect essentially feminist principles that emphasize the legitimate authority and significance of the individual. Feminist principles of equity and inclusiveness are also represented in emerging concerns that the health needs of many underprivileged groups deserve more focused attention, and, additionally, that entirely new areas of health can be profitably examined within the framework of health psychology.     

Feminism and the Decade of Behavior

This Psychology of Women Quarterly special issue argues that the goals of the Decade of Behavior to foster a healthier, safer, better educated, more prosperous, and more democratic nation cannot be achieved without contributions from feminist psychology. Its individual articles reflect feminist perspectives and provide examples of how feminist perspectives can inform behavioral and social research within Decade domains. In this overview, we outline the challenges that gender poses to achieving Decade goals, and discuss four cross-cutting feminist principles for research to address those challenges: Inclusiveness and Diversity, Context, Power and Privilege, and Activism. We discuss specific limitations of traditional research, and emphasize the need for new models that view the world in more complex, context-based ways. We underscore the importance of generating new, diversity-mindful research questions and of developing and accepting new methods to answer them. We discuss policy implications, stressing the need for activism. We hope this work will encourage the expansion of feminist scholarship in the new millennium and be helpful to researchers, educators, and policymakers in working to achieve the goals of the Decade of Behavior.     

GENDER AND CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS FOR MASTERY, PERSONAL, AND INTERPERSONAL EVENTS

In two studies, achievement was conceptualized as consisting of affiliative as well as mastery events. Participants wrote about a recent achievement, provided causal attributions, and assessed the degree to which that achievement involved mastery, personal, and interpersonal themes in the first study. A second study randomly assigned participants a theme and asked them to assess the involvement of traditional correlates of achievement. Results indicated that individuals viewed achievement as consisting of mastery, personal, and interpersonal activities. These activities differed, however, in their associated pattern of correlates and attributions. Mastery events were characterized by public standards, high expectations, a process focus, completed time frame, and attributions to ability and effort. Interpersonal events were characterized by internal standards, lower expectations, an outcome focus, ongoing time frame, and attributions to luck. Characteristics reported for personal events varied as a function of methodology.