Psychology of gender: Addressing misconceptions and setting goals for the field.

Abstract

As an active interdisciplinary subfield, the psychology of gender has made major contributions to social psychology, and to psychological science more broadly. And yet, it has often been viewed as a special-interest area producing less rigorous work than other subfields. Such unduly negative perceptions may undermine the extent to which developments in gender-related scholarship ultimately contribute to broader scientific and social advances. The current work seeks to address common misconceptions about the psychology of gender, both by highlighting impactful contributions from existing work and identifying opportunities for further research. To do so, it discusses three specific misconceptions that may distort the assessment (and ultimately limit the impact) of work in this field. It also presents three underlying goals for future programs of gender-related scholarship. It does so in service of the broader goal of extending the robust body of existing research into new generations of gender science that are rigorous, inclusive, impactful, and can serve as the foundation for both scientific and social progress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).