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Intro to the themes of the course, include theory, ethics, and representation in field of psychology (broadly) and the practice of therapy (specifically). Readings in unit describe the role that theory plays in the design and interpretation of social science research and illustrate how this relationship between theory and practice impacts the way women are represented in research. In turn, has broad implications for how women are seen in society, which is both reflected in and reinforced by the representation of women in other areas of society, such as mainstream media.
resources of this unit
Kilbourne, J. (2014). The dangerous ways ads see women.
Jean Kilbourne, activist and cultural theorist, discusses the experiences that inspired her to study women’s portrayals in advertising. In her talk she explores the powerful effect these images can have on everyone.
Willig, (C). (2013). From recipes to adventures. Chapter 1
Mendick, H., & Moreau, M. (2013). New media, old images: Constructing online representations of women and men in science, engineering, and technology
SET web authors’ understandings of their professional identity, of the activities they are representing and of the distinction between ‘reality’ and representation, are inhibiting social change.
Levitt, D., & Aligo, A. (2013). Moral orientation as a component of ethical decision making.
Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) (2000). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists
Epistemology
branch philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge
Positivism
an epistemological position, belief that human knowledge is produced by the scientific interpretation of observational data. That is straightforward relationship between the world and out perception and understanding of it
Goal of research to produce objective knowledge an understanding that is impartial and unbiased, based on view from the “outside”, without any personal involvement/vested interest in the part of the researcher
Empiricism
closely related to positivism, view that all concepts originate in experience, that simple observations are combined to give rise to more complex ideas, and theroy follows observations
Perception is selective, the more we know about a phenomenon, the more details we perceive when we observe it
Modern-day empiricists argue that knowledge acquision depends on collection and analysis of data (all knowledge claims must be grounded in data)
Hypothetico-deductivism
Relies on deduction and falsification, theories are tested by deriving hypothesis from them
Looks for disconfirmation
How philosophies of science effect research
a researchers epistemological (philophy of science) and methodological (general approach to studying research topics) commitments constrain methods can be used. The philosophy of science guides how knowledge is acquired, how the world is seen, methods to obtain knowledge, how research is designed/done, and how the data is interpreted.
Moral orientation
Manner in which an individual approaches difficult decisions
How moral orientation, gender, and ethical decision making in a professional counselling context
How moral orientation related to gender: moral orientation id partly formed by society which creates different expectations based on gender. As a result, women are more likely to develop a care orientation while men develop a justice orientation
How moral orientation related to ethical decision making:
How we approach ethical decision making will differ based on our moral orientation
Conceptualization of a dilemma
Perceptions of fairness and perfectionism have been further explored to delineate individuals management of dilemmas
discuss how women have been and still are represented in research science and mainstream culture.
A statement about what it meant to be a woman in the culture/world, in the past the representation was more cruel and harsh; insulting women and their bodies. Now it is more explicit underlying culture ideals in the everyday life, these ideals are still are similar to the past representation of women (thin, white, beautiful, sexualized), yet infantizing is on the rise in advertisements and popular media. There is more of an inclusion of minorities before, yet more so those that are lighter in skin color/tone, and/or have more western beauty features in media.
Women have always been those represented as the home makers, the child nurturer, the half to the male partners whole, weak, submissive to their husbands/men: all these centuries old and evolving stereotypes at play in the media and in social interactions, play in how women are represented in all aspects, including in research science. For years women were not allowed to be researched on, based on misogynistic narratives of them been lessor than men, and thus not worth it to study.
Although we are in a different age now, and women are being researched on and are in all career trajejories, in male dominated fields women are being represented stereotypically
How would you describe the representation of women in advertising? How has it changed over time?
In sum representation of women in advertising: submissive, objectified, weak, young (infantilized), hypersexualized
Sum changed over time: more sexual and explicit context over time, and gender roles may be displayed more subtly
Women's bodies are dismembered and/or insulted in ads, for all types of products
Grown women infantilized in ads, and increasingly little girls are sexualized, it is getting worse. In a culture which is sexual abuse of children, they normalize dangerous attitudes/thoughts toward children
Issue is the cultures pornographic attitude toward sex, the trivialization of sex (in ads). Sex is used to sell
Ads normalizes and trivializes bartering, sexual assault and murder
Ads normalize dangerous attitudes, and create climate which women are often seen as things, as objects
How would you describe the representation of men and the relationship between men and women in advertising?
mens bodies rarely dismembered in ads (now more than they used to be). Men more objectified more than used to be yet no consequences as result. Men and women inhabit different worlds
Men are allowed to age and look human
Men are also photoshopped, made to look more muscular (bigger)
Sum: men are strong, rarely objectified, domineering toward women, sometimes violent, women as accessories/status to men
representation of boys
Boys are sexualized too, in a different way than girls: encouraged to be sexuality precocious, learn to be tough and invulnerable. Allow children to be sexualized yet refuse to educate them about sex.
Children getting sex education from advertising, media and popular culture
Describe the relationship between theory and research in the social sciences
Theory is integral to research and research is integral to theory. Theory guides the development of many research questions and stimulates research, affects how data is interpreted,
Research helps generate new theories, as well as determining whether support for theories exists
The epistemological stance of feminist critiques of “male science”
Male as the norm
The God trick
The male as the norm
Studies used mostly only males- opportunity and men seen as “prototypical human subject”. As result findings based on studies with young, white, middle-class male subjects generalized to the population as a whole (nor a representativity sample)
men set the standard to which others were measured
The God trick (male science)
Researchers claimed to be completely objective
that it is impossible to do this: will have some relation with the phenomenon they are studying
The researchers identity and standpoint do shape research process and findings. ignoring this is problematic
alternative= reflexivity
Reflexivity
analyzing and critically considering our own role in, and effect on, our research
How does the feminist stance differ from the more traditional research epistemology of positivism?
is social constructionist, relativist, reflexivity
that science is never free from bias (researchers identity and standpoint do fundamentally shape the research process and findings)
Social constructionism
people actively shape their reality through social interaction
mediated historically, culturally, linguistically
what we perceive is never a direct reflection of environmental conditions
Relativist position
No such thing as "pure experience"
explore ways culture, discursive resources are used to construct different versions of experience
Realist position
data we collect provides use with information about how things really are
Diversity
representation of people from various racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations
Empowerment
a process that makes an individual more confident in having control over there life and claiming their rights
Intersectionality
an analytic framework for assessing how factors such as race, gender, and class interact to shape individual life chances and societal patterns of stratification
Limitations of “male science”
Women are largely invisible in social scientific work
Where women have been studied, they are found inferior to men in terms of moral development, intelligence and conversational styles.
used to perpetuate existing inequalities.
Three epistemological questions in relation to a feminist approach
What kind of knowledge does feminism aim to produce
What assumptions does feminism make about the world
How does feminism conceptualize the role of the researcher in the research process
What kind of knowledge does feminism aim to produce
qualitative info (description or explanations)
Give voice to those who have been marginalized, discounted
Interpret what people have said in order to explain why they may have said it
Make links between micro-processes (interactions) and macro-structures (economic relations)
Subjective ‘feel’ of a particular experience or condition
Recurring patterns of experience among a group of people
What assumptions does feminism make about the world/ Ontology
relativist stance
Deny claim to objectivity within a domain and assert that facts in that domain are relative to the perspective or an observer or the context in which they are assessed (diversity of interpretations)
How does feminism conceptualize the role of the researcher in the research process
The researcher is implicated in the research process
Some methodologies see researcher as central (constructing findings)- usually relativist
Others see them as less central (realists), but use their skills to uncover evidence (rather than construct it)
What factors contribute to women’s university and career choices in relation to science, engineering, and technology
Archer, & DeWitt (2010) approach views young people's subject and career choices as part of “Identity work”: lack of interest in school science as product of mismatch between popular representations of science, manner in which it is taught, and aspirations, ideals and developing identities of young adolescents
Identity work
Media: mismatch between popular representations
How science is taught
Aspirations, ideals, and developing identities
How does the positivist view of science play into web authors’ views about the “problem of gender” in science, engineering, and technology?
Positive paradigm= belief that they are completely objective and absolute that are independent from social or political norms
Such positivist conceptions contributed to some web authors locating the problem of gender and SET outside of SET, within society
family circumstances were often perceived as a key factor in explaining the lack of women in SET, ignoring the differences between fields within SET and between SET and other occupations. For example, that whole family issue (childrearing and daycare). However, web authors also displaced any responsibility for action that remains within SET fields away from the realm of media representations of SET.
One positivist view was that journalism, and scientific discourses are distinct and oppositional. Nevertheless, distinct and oppositional or complementary neither say anything about gender equity and so position it as a secondary consideration. BUT positivist view is about what you are already seeing, as in observable evidence, which is men in STEM, the positivist view perpetuates the current situation.
problem with empirical realism in relation to the representation of women in science, engineering, and technology?
Empirical realism functions to classify some cultural texts as bad and some as good.
It incorrectly assumes: that a text can be a direct, immediate reproduction or reflection of an ‘outside world’...The empiricist conception denies the fact that each text is a cultural product realized under specific ideological and social conditions of production.
And so there can never be any question of an unproblematic mirror relation between text and social reality: at most, it can be said that a text constructs its own version of ‘the real’.
Empirical realism positions as ignorant, or at best ill-informed, all those who experience as real anything which fails its empirical test.
It operates at the cognitive level of knowledge about the world and locates the problems, if there are any, in the real world outside of and separate from the text. Thus, change is understood as unnecessary if media representations pass the empirical test.
Empirical Realism lives in its own world apart from social construction (or so it thinks, it actually doesn't) so those part of this realism think that they are part of reality, when in reality they are ignoring it. The representation is completely male.
What does this problem (empirical realism in relation to the representation of women in science, engineering, and technology) say about the relationship between representation and reality:
empiricist denies the fact that text is product of specific ideological and social conditions
A text constructs its own version of “the real”
