Lee Jussim

Richard D. Ashmore

Self and identity have been important yet volatile notions in psychology since its formative years as a scientific discipline. Recently, psychologists and other social scientists have begun to develop and refine the conceptual and empirical tools for studying the complex nature of self. This volume presents a critical analysis of fundamental issues in the scientific study of self and identity. These chapters go much farther than merely taking stock of recent scientific progress. World-class social scientists from psychology, sociology and anthropology present new and contrasting perspectives on these fundamental issues. Topics include the personal versus social nature of self and identity, multiplicity of selves versus unity of identity, and the societal, cultural, and historical formation and expression of selves. These creative contributions provide new insights into the major issues involved in understanding self and identity. As the first volume in the Rutgers Series on Self and Social Identity, the book sets the stage for a productive second century of scientific analysis and heightened understanding of self and identity. Scholars and advanced students in the social sciences will find this highly informative and provocative reading. Dr. Richard D. Ashmore is a professor and Dr. Lee Jussim is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Fundamental Issues

Self and Identity

Frances K. Del Boca

The Social Psychology of Female-Male Relations: A Critical Analysis of Central Concepts covers the thoughts, feelings, and behaviours of individuals in social interaction and explicitly considers women and men in relation to one another - as individuals, as representatives of social categories, and as significant social groups. Chapter One lays out the parameters of the social psychology of female-male relations. Chapter Two contains two major insights: that gender identity is a complex, multifaceted construct and that the structure and degree of differentiation of gender identity develop and change over the life course. Chapters Three and Four present a relatively general cognitive social-psychological framework for two important constructs, sex stereotypes and gender-related attitudes. Chapter Five offers a critique of analyses that explain the behavior of women and men in close, personal relationships in terms of sex differences in the individual dispositions of the participants. Chapter Six presents a strong and straightforward critique of the current usage of the term sex role to describe a global set of behavioral prescriptions that apply to all women and to all men. Chapter Seven presents a comprehensive review of research on gender-related patterns of behavior in task groups that cannot be found elsewhere. The concluding chapter summarizes points made in earlier chapters and offers a set of notes toward a theory of female-male relations. Social scientists (especially, psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists) doing research on women, on men, or on women and men in relationships or in social interaction.

Richard D. Ashmore

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