Thinking Psychologically About Gender and Sexuality

Explores two central themes in relation to gender and sexuality: the historical and cultural perspective, and the experience of self-identity. This book shows how the variations and experiences of gender and sexuality are made available by the possibilities sanctioned through our upbringing in families and social groups.

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Baker and Parsons explore two central themes in relation to gender and sexuality: the historical and cultural perspective, and the experience of self-identity. "Thinking Psychologically about Gender and Sexuality" shows how the variations and experiences of gender and sexuality are made available by the possibilities sanctioned through our upbringing in families and social groups. Acknowledging the usefulness of social constructionist explanations in understanding how gender 'works' or how it is 'done', the authors seek to translate this into the 'experience' of gender and sexuality. Baker and Parsons also explore how the expression of self-identity is fundamentally important in both gender and sexual identity, and how it is directed by emotions (e.g. embarrassment, shyness, guilt, aggression, frustration, ...). This is where some of the 'psychology' in this book lives - connecting the psychology of emotion with the psychology of gender and sexuality will be a core text for modules where psychology and gender are taught, it will also be a useful text in teaching of courses on Human Sexuality and Psychology of Sexuality.