miche@masscomp.UUCP (Harvey) (05/09/85)
In article <2355@wateng.UUCP> jamcmullan@wateng.UUCP (Judy McMullan) writes: >Did you know that one of the questions on a popular personality test (the >Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory) was (it may still be for all >I know) a question asking, for men, if you were glad to be a man and for >women, if you were glad to be a woman? It was a sign of good mental health >for a man to be glad to be a man and a sign of good mental health for a woman >to want to be a man. This was serious. A mentally healthy woman >is supposed to wish she was a man!! An interesting fact which is related to this, I think, is that most rapists test NORMAL on personality tests. Aackk!! >My point is, our society has come up with such a twisted set of expectations >for women that a woman has been defined as well-adjusted despite the fact that >she disklikes herself. Women are urged to adopt behaviours that are >simultaneously scorned. I could go on and on. Read "Women and Madness", for a >start. I would also like to recommend Phylis Chessler's book 'About Men'. That's not the title, but it's something like that. (She wrote Women and Madness.) > >Some women HAVE managed to express disdain for men and made declarations that >they are glad to be women. These "castrating bitches" are quickly condemned (and >pointed to as "typical feminists"). > > --from the sssstickkky keyboard of JAM > ...!{ihnp4|clyde|decvax}!watmath!wateng!jamcmullan Thanks for the posting, Judy. I'm glad to be a woman. Miche Baker-Harvey {decvax|ihnp4}!masscomp!galaxy!miche
daemon@decwrl.UUCP (The devil himself) (05/13/85)
Re: 'I want to be me'___________________________________________________________ >> Did you know that one of the questions on a popular personality test (the >> Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory) was (it may still be for all I >> know) a question asking, for men, if you were glad to be a man and for women, >> if you were glad to be a woman? It was a sign of good mental health for a >> man to be glad to be a man and a sign of good mental health for a woman to >> want to be a man. This was serious. A mentally healthy woman is supposed to >> wish she was a man!! >> > An interesting fact which is related to this, I think, is that most rapists > test NORMAL on personality tests. Aackk!! (*Sigh...*) This kind of sexism is, unfortunately, rampant throughout psychology. For example, Erik Erikson's famous "life stages" model was built from studies of men. Lawrence Kohlberg's "stages of morality" were expressly based on a male sample. (In fact, he discarded results from the women who took part in his study because their answers didn't fit into the model he was build- ing!) Both of these (which are addressed in Carol Gilligan's excellent book, _In_A_Different_Voice_) have been applied to people of both sexes, as if men were the representative sex for the species! These aren't the only examples. Starting with Freud's theories (formu- lated in the Victorian Era, when women were overtly regarded as lesser creatures than men), psychology has been the study of males by males with the conclusions extrapolated to the entire human race. Actually that isn't entirely true. Since most psychiatric patients are women (for whatever reasons - but that's a whole new can of worms), much of the research in what is called "abnormal" psychology is based on the study of women. For some strange reason, the results of such research hasn't been extrapolated to the entire human species; they have instead been used to support the notion that women are inferior to men! For more information on this, and since we're all recommending books here, take a look at _Women_And_Sex_Roles_, by Irene Frieze _et._al._ >> Some women HAVE managed to express disdain for men and made declarations that >> they are glad to be women. (*Ahem!*) I hasten to add that one doesn't have to express disdain for men to make a declaration that one is glad to be a woman. My own opinion on the matter is that one who likes being who they are should recognize another's right to like being who they are. I realize that, demographically, it is women who are discouraged from liking themselves. But I don't think that reversing the situation is the ans- wer; I'd say that the answer is for nobody to discourage anybody else from lik- ing themselves. Two wrongs never make a right. <_Jym_> :::::::::::::::: Jym Dyer ::::' :: `:::: Dracut, Massachusetts ::' :: `:: :: :: :: DYER%VAXUUM.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA :: .::::. :: {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-vaxuum!dyer ::..:' :: `:..:: ::::. :: .:::: Statements made in this article are my own; they might not :::::::::::::::: reflect the views of |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| Equipment Corporation.
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (05/15/85)
In article <2148@decwrl.UUCP> daemon@decwrl.UUCP (The devil himself) writes: > These aren't the only examples. Starting with Freud's theories (formu- >lated in the Victorian Era, when women were overtly regarded as lesser creatures >than men), psychology has been the study of males by males with the conclusions >extrapolated to the entire human race. Actually, most of Freud's work was based on his experiences with neurotic (his diagnosis), Jewish, Viennese women -- a rather narrow sample of the human race at best. About the MMPI: A major criticism of it is that it was normed on a population of asylum inmates and is designed to detect pathology rather than health. The questions in it were chosen empirically by administering a much larger set of questions to the normative population and keeping only those questions which distinguished on the desired psychological dimensions. (i.e.: If 95% of depressed patients answered question X the same way then question X was kept as a depression detector. If the answers to question Y were mixed 50- 50 by everyone then question Y was thrown out). This is why some of them appear to be irrelevant or make little sense. Reading the graph of an MMPI score remains an art and the scores should never be taken out of context as the sole indicator of a person's mental condition. -- -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_- The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp TTI 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90405 (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe