Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T21:44:29.328Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Methodological Issues in the Construction of Gender as a Meaningful Variable in Scientific Studies of Cognition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

Phyllis Rooney
Phyllis Rooney*
Affiliation:
Oakland University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There are many reasons why my “special science,” psychology—and more specifically cognitive psychology—lends itself to particularly fruitful feminist philosophical analysis. Many central questions in feminist philosophy of science and feminist science studies are well illuminated there, especially those that are reflected in specific methodological issues. For example, in feminist science critiques tensions have arisen about the role of empiricism: many stress the importance of paying careful attention to certain strictures of empiricist methodology (close attention to accuracy in data collection, hypothesis formation, replication of “findings” about sex differences, and so on), yet concerns have also been raised about empiricism as an overall feminist epistemological framework—specifically, concerns about whether such a framework can adequately entertain the most transformative feminist political projects. I think such tensions in feminist science criticism are best addressed by paying close attention to their deployment in particular working contexts of feminist science.

Type
Part IV. Feminist Perspectives on Special Sciences
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1994 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1994 , 1994 , pp. 109 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I am grateful to my fellow symposiasts Lynn Hankinson Nelson, Jack Nelson, and Elizabeth Potter for their encouragement with this project, and also to Abigail Stewart and Rhoda Unger for their encouragement and guidance in my exploration of the literature in feminist psychology.

References

Bohan, J.S. (1993), “Regarding Gender: Essentialism, Constructionism, and Feminist Psychology”, Psychology of Women Quarterly 17:5–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clopton, N.A. and Sorell, G.T. (1993), “Gender Differences in Moral Reasoning: Stable or Situational?”, Psychology of Women Quarterly 17: 85–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaux, K. (1984), “From Individual Differences to Social Categories: Analysis of a Decade's Research on Gender”, American Psychologist 39(2): 105–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deaux, K. and Major, B. (1987), “Putting Gender into Context: An Interactive Model of Gender-Related Behavior”, Psychological Review 94(3): 369–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fine, M. and Gordon, S.M. (1992), “Feminist Transformations of/despite Psychology”, in Fine, M. (ed.), Disruptive Voices: The Possibilities of Feminist Research. University of Michigan Press, pp. 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, C. (1982), In A Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Grady, K.E. (1981), “Sex Bias in Research Design”, Psychology of Women Quarterly 5(4): 628–636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare-Mustin, R.T. and Marecek, J. (eds.) (1990), Making a Difference: Psychology and the Construction of Gender. Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lott, B. (1990), “Dual Natures or Learned Behavior: The Challenge to Feminist Psychology”, in Hare-Mustin and Marecek (1990)Google Scholar
Maccoby, E.E., and Jacklin, C.N. (1974), The Psychology of Sex Differences. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mednick, M.T. (1989), “On the Politics of Psychological Constructs: Stop the Bandwagon, I Want to Get Off”, American Psychologist 44(8): 1118–1123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morawski, J.G. (1994) Practicing Feminisms, Reconstructing Psychology: Notes on a Liminal Science. University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rooney, P. (1992), “On Values in Science: Is the Epistemic/Non-Epistemic Distinction Useful?”, PSA 1992, Volume 1, Hull, D., Forbes, M., and Okruhlik, K. (eds.). East Lansing: Philosophy of Science Association, pp. 13–22.Google Scholar
Rooney, P. (1995), “Rationality and the Politics of Gender Difference”, Metaphilosophy 26 (1 &2): 22–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharps, M J. Welton, A.L. and Price, J.L. (1993), “Gender and Task in the Determination of Spatial Cognitive Performance”, Psychology of Women Quarterly 17: 71–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharps, M.J. Price, J.L. and Williams, J.K. (1994), “Spatial Cognition and Gender: Instructional and Stimulus Influences on Mental Image Rotation Performance”, Psychology of Women Quarterly 18: 413–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherif, C.W. (1982), “Needed Concepts in the Study of Gender Identity,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 6(4): 375–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unger, R.K. (1989), Representations: Social Constructions of Gender. Baywood Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Unger, R.K. (1990), “Imperfect Reflections of Reality: Psychology Constructs Gender”, in Hare-Mustin and Marecek (1990).Google Scholar