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ISBN 91-88874-99-0

Gender research in psychology

“Gender research in psychology" has been written by Eva Magnusson, a lecturer and research fellow in psychology at Umeå University. It is the sixth in a series of publications on gender research issued in collaboration by the National Agency for Higher Education´s Council for Gender Equality and the National Secretariat for Gender Research.

Requirements that programmes and research should include a gender perspective are often countered with questions such as ‘What is gender and what is gender research?´. No self-evident, unambiguous answer can be provided, as there is no agreement among those involved in gender research about how the concept is to be defined. The aim of this series of publications is to present an overview of gender research in different disciplines.

Gender research in psychology studies, for example, the psychological significance of sex and sexual identity for the individual or how psychology as an academic discipline and in its applications helps to confirm or change existing perceptions of gender and identities. Eva Magnusson points out, among other things, that this scrutiny of psychological theories about sex and the critical questions raised by gender research can play an important part in enhancing and improving psychology both as a discipline and in practice.