White, B. L., with Kaban, B. T., Attanucci, J., & Shapiro, B. B. Experience and environment: Major influences on the development of the child, Vol. II. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978, 566 pp., $22.95
✍ Scribed by James A. Wakefield Jr.
- Book ID
- 101363465
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1981
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 153 KB
- Volume
- 18
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0033-3085
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
ing are Schaffer's recurrent discussions of the implications of sex-role expectations for mental health professionals, especially men and women who counsel female clients confronting feminist questions in marriage and career.
Many clinicians, like the rest of us, covet sex-biased attitudes. Unfortunately, Schaffer's search through the literature reveals few controlled studies of bias in therapists, and she has difficulty untangling the issue. Nonetheless, the following conclusions seem warranted from her discussion: First, men and women counselors are likely to treat men and women clients differently; Schaffer, of course, highlights cases of sexual stereotyping. Second, what therapists (and others) profess about sexist issues may not indicate how, in fact, they behave. Incongruities between attitude and behavior are not new in human psychology. Other than reaffirming the problem, Schaffer adds little. Third, socialization (i.e., nonsexist) may be under way, but the culture as a whole has barely been affected. Consequently, the therapist and the client often operate from vastly different perspectives. In fact, Schaffer cites evidence indicating that the "sexual revolution" may be confined at present to one population segment, white educated women:
An investigation comparing sex-role attitudes of undergraduate men and women (Osmond & Martin, 1975) indicates that both sexes accept a sexual division of labor within the family, with the woman continuing to have primary responsibility for ,the home and child care. Men and women disagree the most about sexrole changes involving women assuming supervisory, decision-making, and