Both/and, not either/or: A call for methodological pluralism in research on masculinity.

Abstract

The authors point out an uncomfortable fact for the psychology of men and masculinity. Namely, that our research used to challenge essentialist thinking about traditional masculinity is vulnerable to reifying and essentializing masculinity by using scale scores to assess masculinity. Although I share the concerns, I reach different conclusions about the remedies. In the paper, I discuss how we might think about the nature of masculinity, address intraindividual variability, and I argue that there is a social reality in which individuals construct masculinity. Finally, I suggest that instead of recreating the same problem of overreliance on a single methodology, the field embrace methodological pluralism in advancing our understanding of men and masculinity issues.