Language, Gender, & Cognition

Spring 1997 Graduate Seminar
Jennifer J. Freyd
University of Oregon

Texts to Purchase

Crawford, M. (1995) Talking Difference: On Gender and Language. Sage.

Crawford, M. & Gentry, M., Eds. (1989) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag. [out of print; purchase as a course packet]

Readings

Readings for April 7

Chapters 1 & 2 ("Talking Across the Gender Gap" and "The Search for a Women's Language") from Crawford, M. (1995) Talking Difference: On Gender and Language. Sage.

Gentry, M. (1989) Feminist perspectives on gender and thought: paradox and potential. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag.

Unger, R. K. (1989) Sex, Gender, and Epistemology. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag.

Readings for April 14:

Eccles, J.S. (1989) Bringing Young Women to Math and Science. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag.

Henley, N.M. (1989) Molehill or Mountain? What we know and don't know about sex bias in language. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag.

Rabinowitz, V.C. & Sechzer, J.A. (1993) Feminist perspectives on research methods. In F.L. Denmark & M.A. Paludi (Eds.) Psychology of Women: A handbook of issues and theories (pp 23-66). Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Readings for April 21:

Chapter 3 "The Assertiveness Bandwagon" in Crawford's Talking Difference.

Mednick, M. T. (1989). On the politics of psychological constructs: Stop the bandwagon, I want to get off. American Psychologist, 44(8), 1118-1123.

Chapters 1 and 5 from Henley, N. M. (1977). Body politics: Power, sex, and nonverbal communication. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.

Readings for April 28:

Chapter 4 (Two Sexes, Two Cultures) and chapter 5 (On Conversational Humor) in Talking Difference (86-169)

Readings for May 5:

Crosby, F.J., Pufall, A., Synder, R.C., O'Connel, M., & Whalen, P. (1989) The denial of personal disadvantage among you, me, and all the other ostriches. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag.

Markus, H. & Oyserman, D. (1989) Gender & Thought: The Role of Self-Concept In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag.

Daton, N. (1989) Illness & Imagery: Feminist Cognition, Socialization, and Gender Identity. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag.

Readings for May 12:

Allison, D. (1994). Shotgun strategies. In Skin: Talking about sex, class, and literature, pp. 51-56. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books.

*OPTIONAL: Belenky, M. F., Clinchy, B. M., Goldberger, N. R., & Tarule, J. M. (1986). Silence. In Women's ways of knowing: The development of self, voice, and mind, pp. 23-34. Basic Books.

Brown, L. M. (1991). Telling a girl's life: Self-authorization as a form of resistance. In Gilligan, C., Rogers, A. G., & Tolman, D. L., Eds., Women, girls, and psychotherapy: Reframing resistance, pp. 71-86. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press.

Dent, Gina (1995). Missionary position. In Walker, R. (Ed.), To be real: Telling the truth and changing the face of feminism, pp. 61-75.

Lamb, S. (1997). The making of perpetrators and victims. In The trouble with blame: Victims, perpetrators, and responsibility, pp. 128-159.

*READ ONLY pp. 128-134, THE REST IS OPTIONAL.

Mahoney, M. A. (1996). The problem of silence in feminist psychology. Feminist Studies, 22, 603-625.

Readings for May 19:

Gergen, K. (1994) The cultural consequences of deficit discourse. In K. Gergen Realities and relationships: Soundings in social construction. Harvard University Press. pp 143-164.

Brown, L (1994) Naming the pain: Diagnosis and distress. In L. Brown Subversive dialogues. BasicBooks. pp. 124-152.

Caplan, P. (1995) Do mental health professionals think anyone is normal? In P. Caplan They say you're crazy: How the world's most powerful psychiatrists decide who's normal. Addison-Wesley. pp. 59-82, 272-280 [Read pp 75-82 for sure; the rest is optional]

Parker, I, Georgaca, E., Harper, T., & Stowell-Smith, M.,(1995) Deconstructing psychopathology. Sage Publications. pp. 37-46, 59-63, 92-94 [All optional]

No meeting May 26 (Memorial day)

Readings for June 2:

Chapter 6 (Toward a Feminist Theory of Gender and Communication) in Talking Difference (pp 170-179)

Bem, S. (1993) The Lenses of Gender. Yale Univeristy Press (pp 1-5 and 176-196).

Fine, M. & Gordon, S.M. (1989) Feminist Transformation of/Despite Psychology. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag. (146-174)

Harding, S. (1993). Rethinking standpoint epistemology: What is "strong" objectivity? In L. Alcoff & E. Potter (Ed.), Feminist epistemologies (pp. 49-82). New York: Routledge.

Spender, D. (1995). Nattering on the net. Australia: Spinifex Press.(p 18-29)

Crawford, M. (1989) Agreeing to Differ: Feminist epistemologies and women's ways of knowing. In M. Crawford and M. Gentry (Eds) Gender and Thought: Psychological Perspectives. Springer-Verlag. (Optional)

Spender, D. (1980) Man Made Language. Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp 1-51. (Optional)

Other Recommended Reading

Other recommendations for future reading on Language & Gender (Here are some recommended articles and books that either I have read (marked by *** at end of entry) or have written down because I want to read them but that we did not read in this seminar.)

Bem,S., & Bem,D. (1973). Does sex-biased job advertising "aid and abet" sex discrimination? Journal of Applied Social Psychology,3(1), 6-18. ***

Briere, J., Lanktree,C. (1983). Sex-role related effects of sex bias in language. Sex Roles,9(5), 625 - 631.

Brooks, L. Sexist language in occupational information: Does it make a difference? Journal of Vocational Behavior, 23, 227-232. (1988)

Cameron, D. (Ed.), (1990). The Feminist Critique of Language. London: Routledge.

Cameron,D. (1985). Feminism and Linguistic Theory. London:Macmillan.

Cline, S., & Spender, D. (1987). Reflecting men at twice their size. New York, New York: Seaver Books. ***

Crawford, M. & English, L. (1984). Generic versus specific inclusion of women in language: Effects on recall. Journal of Psychlinguistic Research, 13, 373-381.

Dayhoff, S.A. Sexist language and person perception: Evaluation of candidates from newspaper articles. Sex Roles, 9 (4), 527 -539. (1983)

Gastil,J. (1990). Generic pronouns and sexist language: the oxymoronic character of masculine generics. Sex Roles, 23 (11/12) 629-643.

Hamilton, M. (1988). Using masculine generics: Does generic he increase male bias in the user's imagery? Sex Roles, 19 , 785-798. ***

Hamilton, M. C. (1988). Masculine generic terms and misperception of AIDS risk. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 18(14), 1222-1240. ***

Hamilton, M. C. (1991). Masculine bias in the attribution of personhood. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 15, 393-402. ***

Hamilton, M.C., Hunter, B., & Stuart-Smith, S. ((1992) Jury instructions worded in the masculine generic: can a woman claim self-defense when "he" is threatened? In J.C. Chrisler, D. Howard, (Eds) New Directions in Feminist Psychology: Practice, Theory, and Research. New York: Springer. ***

Hyde, J.S. (1984). Children's understanding of sexist language. Developmental Psychology, 20, 697-706.

King,R. (Ed.). (1991). Talking Gender: A Guide to Nonsexist Communication. Mississauga: Copp Clark Pitman.

Laird, J. (1994) Changing Women's Narratives: Taking Back the Discourse in L.V. Davis (Ed.) Building on Women's Strengths: a Social Work Agenda for the Twenty-First Century. Hawthorne Press***

Lakoff, R.T. (1976) Language and Women's Place. Octagon Books. ***

Lipton, J., Hershaft.A.M. (1984). "Girl,""Women,""Guy,""Man,": The effects of sexist labeling. Sex Roles, 10,(3/4),183-193.

Miller & Swift's 2nd edition of Words and women, copyright 1991.

Moulton, J.R. et al. (1978). Psychology in action: Sex bias in language use. American Psychologist, 33, 1032-1036.

Ng, S.K. (1990). Androcentric coding of man and his in memory by language users. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 26, 455-464.

Roman,C., Juhasz,S.,Miller,C. (Eds.).(1994) The Women and Language Debate: a sourcebook. New Jersey: Rutgers.

Schulz, M.R. (1975) The semantic derogation of woman. in B. Thorne & N. Henley (Eds) Language & Sex: Difference and Dominance. Newburty House Publishers***

Spender, D. (1980) Man Made Language. Routledge & Kegan Paul***

Stericker,A. (1981). Does this "he or she" business really make a difference? The effect od masculine pronouns as generics on job attitudes. Sex Roles, 7(6),637-641.

Switzer, J.Y. (1990). The impact of generic word choices: an emperical investigation of age and sex-related differenes. Sex Roles, 22, 69-82.

Thorn, B., & Henly, N., Eds. (1975) Language & Sex: Difference and Dominance. Newbury House Publishers***

Wilson, E., Ng,S.H. (1988). Sex bias in visual images evoked by generics: A NewZealand study. Sex Roles, 18, 159-168.

Wise, E., Rafferty, J.,(1982) Sex bias and language. Sex Roles, 8(12), 1189-1196.

Wolfson, N., & Manes, J. (1980). "Don't 'dear' me!". In S. McConnell-Ginet, R. Borker, & N. Furman (Ed.), Women and language in literature and society. New York: Praeger. ***

Wood, J. (1994) Gendered Lives, a text on gender and communication studies Wadsworth.