Synonyms
Definition
Feminine psychology is an area of psychology that focuses on the political, economic, and social issues that pervasively confront women (Horney 1967). This can be interpreted as a counteraction to male-dominated theories, an example being Sigmund Freud’s perspective of female sexuality. One of feminine psychology’s pioneers, Karen Horney, asserted that male realities cannot describe female psychology or define women’s gender by virtue of the lack of experiences of voices from girls and women (Miletic 2002). Therefore, theorists contend that this area of psychology is necessary and that women’s voices and experiences are crucial to understand their psychology. For instance, they claim that characteristics of feminine psychology emerge to adhere to the social order defined by men rather than because of the nature of their gender defined by themselves (Berger 1994).
Introduction
Feminine psychology was coined by Karen Horney,...
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Leung, E. (2020). Feminine Psychology. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_663
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