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Why Psychology of Men?
It wasn't until I was in my mid-20s that I ever really reflected on my gender, which is likely a privilege in being a Caucasian, American, heterosexual male. I also realized that many of my friends, colleagues, or male therapy clients had never thought about it either, and if they did they were afraid to discuss it for fear of appearing insensitive or politically incorrect. During this same time I began doing extensive reading on the psychology of men and men's issues that proved not only to be personally powerful, but were very helpful to my clients.

Doing this, I stumbled on two general frameworks of understanding the psychology of men: those that existed from a male-empowerment perspective (embraces masculinity, often sees much of gender as an outgrowth of biological sex, and encourages mature expansion of these traits) and those that emerged as a results of new perspectives from the women's movement and gender studies programs (masculinity is pure social construction based on dominance that although has some positives for individuals, causes major problems for self, others, and culture, and leads to oppression of women).

It became obvious to me that both of these threads had importance, but I found very few quality sources of information that ever incorporated both into a framework of understanding that explained who I was as a man, or could be helpful to my clients, professional colleagues, and non-psychologists in my life. So I started this website to accomplish that.

Multicultural Men's Issues
One of the most important movements in modern psychology has been the incorporation of a deeper level of understanding the role of culture and diversity factors in the lives of people. Almost all psychologists being trained now in the US receive training in multicultural issues, and the emergence of this in research and practice has been called a fourth wave of influence in the entire field of counseling psychology.

However, there still is a major deficit of understanding on multicultural men's issues. In writing the articles for this website I struggled mightily trying to figure out how to blend the research, theory, and knowledge we have of "men" with its inherent Western, Caucasian, heterosexual bias, and other cultural perspectives. So at this point, the articles make an effort at this, but it will unfortunately be a limitation of this site and the published literature for the foreseeable future. I always welcome feedback about the site, suggestions for future reading, and also ideas for improvements, especially in this area.]]> General http://psychologyofmen.org/index.php?itemid=5 Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:26:53 -0500 http://psychologyofmen.org/index.php?itemid=4
An explanation that gets very little consideration in the professional literature is that men who maintain at least some level of traditional masculinity benefit tremendously, often outweighing the costs associated with it. These benefits are what I call “gender role advantage” (GRA), which is operationally defined as “the benefits from maintaining a particular gender role and identity.” Put simply, a traditional gender role is functional. I believe that GRA is the primary factor that prevents traditional men from readily adopting (and teaching their sons) more flexible masculine identities and gender roles, which would reduce gender role conflict and associated problems.

There are a variety of areas of hypothesized benefits from holding a traditional male gender role on two levels. The two primary benefits are greater likelihood of:

(1) acceptance from other men
(2) success at activities and occupations traditionally pursued by or required of men

Each of these have secondary benefits that include increased:

(a) social status
(b) income/resources
(c) self-esteem
(d) interest from mates

This highlights two philosophical underpinnings of the GRA concept. First, sociologist Michael Kimmel proposed that a man’s value in the world is determined by other men. Therefore, if other men collectively favor traditional masculinity, then someone adopting this can expect to be more readily accepted and rewarded by the world of men. Second, the major components of the traditional male gender role prepare men well for occupations and activities that they have traditionally held (or were required to perform) over evolutionary time. Hunters, warriors, builders, and leaders are better equipped for success with characteristics identified as part of the male gender role.

In conclusion, for individual men, a tension exists related to gender role and identity. Maintaining a certain level of traditional masculinity is the source of great rewards (gender role advantage) and also the source of problems (gender role conflict). Most people do not give up their benefits to reduce the problems unless there is an unfavorable imbalance and they have access to other models and resources.]]> General http://psychologyofmen.org/index.php?itemid=4 Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:24:08 -0500 http://psychologyofmen.org/index.php?itemid=3
Sometimes our gender roles can become restrictive and cause problems. This is referred to as “gender role conflict” (GRC; O’Neil, 2008). Research has shown that many psychological and social problems in men’s lives can be traced to GRC. For example, an advantage of restricting emotions may be the ability to stay cool in a crisis situation, but a disadvantage would be the inability to emotionally connect in a relationship. At worst, GRC can lead to the harm and violation of rights of others.

O’Neil (2008) breaks down different types of GRC in this way (quoted directly):

a) GRC within the man
private experience of negative emotions and thoughts experienced as gender role devaluations, restrictions, and violations.
b) GRC expressed toward others
men’s expressed gender role problems that potentially devalue, restrict, or violate someone else.
c) GRC experienced from others
men’s interpersonal experience of gender role conflict from people interacted with that result in being personally devalued, restricted, or violated.
d) GRC experienced from role transitions
Gender role transitions are events in a man’s gender role development that alter or challenge his gender role self-assumptions and consequently produce GRC or positive life changes

O’Neil (2008) defined devaluations, restrictions, and violations this way:

“Gender role devaluations are negative critiques of self or others when conforming to, deviating from, or violating stereotypic gender role norms of masculinity ideology. Devaluations result in lessening of personal status, stature, or positive regard.”

“Gender role restrictions occur when confining others or oneself to stereotypic norms of masculinity ideology. Restrictions result in controlling people’s behavior, limiting one’s personal potential, and decreasing human freedom.

“Gender role violations result from harming oneself, harming others, or being harmed by others when deviating from or conforming to gender role norms of masculinity ideology. To be violated is to be victimized and abused, causing psychological and physical pain. (O’Neil, 2008, p.363).”

Gender role strain is a related concept that describes the psychological and emotional consequences of violating “masculine ideology”, which is defined as “beliefs about the importance of men adhering to culturally defined standards for male behavior” (Pleck, 1995, p. 19). At the risk of over-simplifying, you can think of GRC as the actual conflict situation and gender role strain as the process that led to the conflict. The gender role strain has three patterns, which theoretically underlie the GRC patterns (Pleck, 1995):

(1) discrepancy strain
person attempts to conform to traditional gender roles
(2) trauma strain
occurs after experiencing a traumatic event or process during socialization (some people think of separating from mother or having an absent father are traumatic)
(3) dysfunction strain
when fulfillment of a gender role is hazardous

Overall, research has shown that GRC and gender role strain are related to depression, anxiety, relationship problems, violence, and a variety of other undesirable things. It is possible to reduce or minimize the negative effects of GRC by (a) recognizing it, and (b) becoming more flexible in attitudes and behavior. Using the previous example of the man in the relationship, he may not be very emotionally expressive in other parts of his life but he could learn to be emotionally expressive in his relationship.

Next Section: Gender Role Advantage


Pleck (1995). The gender role strain paradigm: An update. In Levant & Pollack (Eds.) New Psychology of Men. New York: Basic.
Jim ONeil’s GRC Page at UConn
O'Neil (2008). Summarizing 25 Years of Research on Men's Gender Role Conflict Using the Gender Role Conflict Scale: New Research Paradigms and Clinical Implications. The Counseling Psychologist, 38, 358-445
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"Masculine" is the term used to describe things typically ascribed to maleness. All cultures across all times have had versions of masculinity that are promoted among the people. Some cultures subtly encourage men to adopt certain forms of masculinity whereas others demand strict conformity.

Levant et al (1992) summarized traditional (hegemonic) American masculinity into seven principles/attitudes:

(1) restrict emotions
(2) avoid being feminine
(3) focus on toughness and aggression
(4) be self-reliant
(5) make achievement the top priority
(6) be non-relational
(7) objectify sex
(8) be homophobic

Another popular structuring of this was by David & Brannon (1976), who described the four standards of traditional American masculinity:

(1) “no sissy stuff”
distance self from femininity, homophobia, avoid emotions
(2) “be a big wheel”
strive for achievement and success, focus on competition
(3) “be a sturdy oak”
avoid vulnerability, stay composed and in control, be tough
(4) “give em hell”
act aggressively to become dominant

Other researchers have tried to explore whether there is a "universal masculine" that can be seen in all cultures during all times. With a few exceptions, the characteristics identified are securing/providing resources, defending others/territory, and impregnating women.

Finally, there is an all-time debate about whether gender is socially constructed (meaning that is primarily is a product of learning and socialization) or whether is emanates from our biological sex and is more "hard-wired" and connected to evolutionary forces. I believe there overwhelming evidence at this point that it is an interaction between biology, socialization, and culture that produces our gender identity. For example, there is convincing evidence that there are structural and hormonal and differences in male and female brains that predispose (most) people toward personality and behavioral characteristics that correspond to their biological sex; family influences and social learning can help shape, engender, or suppress some of these characteristics; and the larger culture has an influence on the various sanctioned forms of how gender identity will be expressed.

Next: Gender-Role Conflict


David & Brannon (1976). The Forty-nine percent majority: The male sex role. Addison-Wesley.
Levant et al (1992). The male role: An investigation of norms and stereotypes. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 14, 325-337.
Gregor (1985). Anxious pleasures. University of Chicago Press]]> General http://psychologyofmen.org/index.php?itemid=6 Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:28:00 -0500