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Sex, Gender, and Epistemology

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Book cover Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives

Abstract

It has been argued by Buss (1975) and others that psychology as a discipline tends to alternate between two basic paradigms explaining the relationship between humans and their environment. These two basic conceptual paradigms are: (1) reality constructs the person, and (2) the person constructs reality. Paradigm (1) postulates a model of a reality that is stable, irreversible, and deterministic. It further postulates that this reality is discoverable through the proper application of scientific methodology and that individual differences are a result of the impingement of that reality on the developing organism. This deep structure underlies such diverse schools of thought as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, and sociobiology. These theoretical frameworks do not question that reality exists. They differ merely on the aspects of reality they stress as having the most impact on individual behavior.

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Authors
  1. Rhoda K. Unger
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, West Chester University, 19383, West Chester, PA, USA

    Mary Crawford

  2. Department of Psychology, Hamilton College, Clinton, NY, USA

    Margaret Gentry

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Unger, R.K. (1989). Sex, Gender, and Epistemology. In: Crawford, M., Gentry, M. (eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3588-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3588-0_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8168-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-3588-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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