Psychology of Gender (PSY 380)
Professor J. Freyd

Official Course Web Site: http://blackboard.uoregon.edu

Syllabus also posted at: http://dynamic.uoregon.edu/~jfreyd/psygen/

Instructor: Professor Jennifer Freyd
Office: 301 Straub Hall
e-mail: jfreyd@dynamic.uoregon.edu
Office Hrs: Monday 1-2:30 and Tuesday 11:20-11:50

Teaching Assistant: Rose Barlow
Office: 328 Straub Hall
e-mail: mbarlow@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Office Hrs: Monday 11:15-1:15

Course Assistants (for office hours see staff information on blackboard):

Overview

We will review empirical findings that support or fail to support common beliefs about gender, the relationship of gender to traditional issues in psychology (e.g., moral development, personality, interpersonal relationships), and special issues pertinent to gender, (e.g., parenthood, violence, and sexual orientation). Class and small-group discussions, guest speakers, and films will supplement reading material and provide more in-depth examination of specific topics.

Course Requirements

Please Note: This course will not be easy. It will be intellectually rigorous and intense. If you are looking for an easy course, then this is not the course for you.

The course requirements include doing the readings, attending class, writing five essays, participating in small-group class discussion and exercises, reading the on-line electronic discussion board, taking five exams, and also completing a final project.

Contact Hours and Class Attendance

We will meet each Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00-11:20, in 146 Straub and your attendance is expected. This is not a course to take if you anticipate missing more than one class meeting, as class discussion, exams, and exercises are crucial to your success in the course. Attendence will be taken most classes; attendance will impact your grade. Your participation is part of the course requirements. We also recommend that you check the course web site on Blackboard at least twice a week, as important course information may be posted by the instructor or teaching assistant.

Cell phones and beepers must be turned off during class time.

Required Readings

Readings are assigned on a weekly basis. Readings are to be completed BEFORE the Tuesday class meeting for which they are assigned. There is one required text book and one required coursepack, available for purchasing at the book store. In addition there are readings on reserve for this course at Knight Library. This course has a serious amount of reading and you will not be able to do well on the exams or essays if you do not do the reading. Each week close to 100 pages of reading must be completed. Please do not take this course if you cannot manage this amount of reading.

Required BOOKS TO PURCHASE for PSY 380:

A&L	Anselmi, D. L. & Law, A. L. (1998). Questions of Gender: Perspectives & Paradoxes. McGraw Hill
CP	COURSE PACKET FOR PSY 380

On-line Readings

Some of the assigned readings will be available on-line. That is, you will be given a web address (URL) that leads you to the required article or web site to explore. In some cases when copyright permits readings will be available to download or print on the Blackboard site under Course Documents, Electronic Articles. On-line readings will be assigned as we go along. To find the on-line article assignment for the upcoming week, check the "Assignments" section of Blackboard. There you will find a folder called "On-line reading assignments" with details about what you should read for the next week.

Grading Overview

Your grade will be computed by combining your scores in the following overall categories for a total of 300 points:

points	course work
100	Exams (4 exams; each exam worth up to 25 points; your lowest score will be replaced by your high score on exam 3 or 4)
75	Essays (5 essays; each worth up to 15 points)
25	Class Attendance & In-class Activity
100	Educational Outreach Project
300	Total
(EC)	Also up to 20 points extra credit potential (e.g. from posts on Blackboard)

Final letter grades will be approximately determined from point totals as follows:

points	letter grade
270-300	A
240-269	B
210-239	C
180-209	D
Below 180	F

Based on the actual distribution of final grades, this criterion might be relaxed, but not stiffened. Plusses and minuses will be used for performance near the edge of a range.

Grading and Requirements - More Details

Required Plagiarism and Academic Honesty Statement

You will be required to read and sign a form regarding your understanding of our policy against plagiarism and for academic honesty. This form will be posted on the Blackboard course web site so you can print it out, read it, sign it, and turn it in. Without a signed form on file we will not grade any of your coursework.

All work submitted in this course must be your own and produced exclusively for this course. The use of sources (ideas, quotations, paraphrases) must be properly acknowledged and documented. For the consequences of academic dishonesty, refer to the Schedule of Classes published quarterly. Violations will be taken seriously and are noted on student disciplinary records. We (your professor and graders) will not tolerate any dishonesty or plagiarism. If you are in doubt regarding any aspect of these issues as they pertain to this course, please consult with the teaching assistant or the instructor before you complete any relevant requirements of the course. (Text adopted here as recommended from the UO web site regarding academic honesty at: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~conduct/). Because some students are not entirely sure what counts as academic dishonesty, we encourage you to read the discussion of plagiarism and other forms of dishonesty at http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~conduct/sai.htm .

Exams: 100 points

FOUR exams will be given. Each exam will be worth 25 points. We will replace your lowest exam score with your high score from exam 3 or 4. (For example, if you scored 15, 19, 22, 23 on exams 1-4 we would replace the 15 with the 23 giving you a total of 87 points. For another example, if you scored 20, 15, 0, 19 we would replace the 0 with the 19 for a total of 73.). Because this policy means you may drop one of your exam grades, there will be NO MAKE-UP exams. The exams will be challenging. They will be structured to assess your knowledge of the readings, in-class films and lectures, and class discussions. The format will include multiple choice, short-answer, and short essays. The questions will primarily pertain to the readings assigned for the week in which the exam is given. Other questions will pertain to the previous week's readings, classroom discussion, lecture, and/or demonstrations. Sometimes a question will refer to material covered earlier in the course.

Essays: 75 points

Five typed essays will each be worth up to 15 points. Essays are due at the BEGINNING of class on the
days they are due; after 5 minutes they will be counted as one day late. A point will be subtracted for each day late. Please carefully review the course policy on plagiarism and academic integrity. Each essay will be 2 to 3 typed pages, and will show that you have put thought into the reading material. Consider the essay as an opportunity to think deeply about the readings and to reflect on the meaning of the material to you, your life, society, and scholarship.

ASSIGNMENT FOR ESSAY #1 (due Oct 7): For the first essay you have a choice of two different topics. You must do the reading for Weeks 1 & 2 FIRST or these questions will not make sense!

1. At this early point in the course, identify your perspective on sex and gender as best you can. Think of where you are along the two continua: minimalism to maximalism; and essentialism to social constructionism. In what ways do you agree and/or disagree with the feminist orientation described by the text (A&L) authors?
2. Collins includes many suggestions for introspective analysis of issues of privilege and oppression. For example, in what ways are you victimized within the social categories to which you belong? In what ways are you an oppressor to others, reinforcing their subordination? Who are you? What are the different aspects of your identity? How do they interrelate with race, class, and gender? Identify things that would be more difficult or less difficult for you to do if you had a different identity.

Attendance and Participation: 25 points

Attendance is crucial in this course. Attendance will often be taken. In-class activities involving small-group work will often include in-class assignments that must be turned in for evidence of quality participation.

Educational Outreach Final Project: 100 points

The final project will be an individual or small-team activity that you do outside of class meeting time. The final project will be in the form of a prototype for a written brochure, poster, letter or other educational outreach material. Your assignment is to apply research and theory from the psychology of gender to the task of educating one or more people who have influence. For instance, you might write a letter that could be sent to the school board of your town arguing for or against co-educational math classes. Or you might create a compelling poster to hang in middle schools intended to discourage hate crimes based on sexual orientation discrimination, and also draft a letter to the principal explaining why this poster would be effective to hang in the school. Or you might design a brochure for state legislators about parental leave and child care policy.

Your educational outreach project will be graded largely on the degree to which you apply research and theory from psychology of gender. You must have at least 5 (five) references from the psychology of gender literature. These references may include articles from the text book and course packet if they are appropriate. You are likely to want to gather additional information at the library. Your outreach project must demonstrate your comprehension of these references and your ability to apply the scholarly and research information to your educational outreach project. More details about the educational outreach project will be given on the course web site (under the Assignments button).

Of your 100 points, 10 points will be reserved for your initial project plan. This plan must indicate your educational outreach objectives (what are you trying to teach), your audience (who are you trying to educate), your product (letter, poster, brochure), and citations for at least 3 articles or books from the psychology of gender literature (not popular press, but actual scholarly or research literature). 70 points will be reserved for the actual product and supporting materials. More detail about the criteria used for these 70 points will be provided on the course web site. 10 points will be reserved for the Educational Outreach Project Convention day in which you present your product -- presentations will consist of displaying your product in the classroom and answering classmates' questions as they view your product. Half the class will present on November 30 ("Tuesday Presenters"); the other half will present on December 2 ("Thursday Presenters"). When you are not presenting you will be completing a written response to your classmates' products; 10 points will be reserved for this activity. More detail about the criteria used for each of these components of the educational outreach project will be given on the course web site.

Educational Outreach Project Teams: Each student will have the choice of working alone on the final project, or, instead, with one, two, or three other classmates (a maximum of 4 people may work together in a team). We encourage the teamwork approach because working collaboratively is educational in its own right. The projects will be graded on the same criteria whether produced by one, two, three, or four people (thus it would really seem a good idea to work in teams!). Project partners or teams must make a commitment to work together by October 28, and this information must be included on the Project Plan.

Due dates for these components of the Educational Outreach Project are as follows:

Late materials will be significantly marked down.

Course Web Site and On-line Discussion

Key information, including updated assignments and grades, will be posted on the course web site. Plan on checking it at least twice a week.

We will have an electronic discussion as part of this course on the course web site. You are expected to read the on-line discussions. Posting your own messages is optional. You may earn extra credit for thought-provoking messages. However, in order to avoid having the on-line discussion become unmanageable, each student will also have a maximum number of posted messages (enforced if necessary) of 2 per week. Also any given message should be no longer than 50 lines of text.

Extra Credit: Up to 20 points

Extra Credit can be earned in a variety of ways up to 20 extra points total. If you make especially valuable contributions to class or on-line discussion, you may earn extra points. Or you can get extra credit for a particularly terrific project. In general, if you do something creative, special, contributive, and above-and-beyond the course requirements, you may earn extra credit. However, we also want you to know that we are much more likely to assign extra credit points for work done consistently throughout the term than work turned in at the end of the term. The final deadline for extra credit work to be turned in is the end of week 9.

Additional Notes

Using Blackboard

The web site for this course was constructed using "Blackboard" software. This allows the web site to be extensive and interactive. On the web site, you will find general announcements for the class, all documents for the course (including this syllabus), lecture notes, on-line discussions, links to relevant web sites, and more. We hope that this web site will be a useful tool for you in learning the material for this class, and in further exploring topics you find interesting. You can get to the course web site by going to http://blackboard.uoregon.edu. If you need help logging in or using Blackboard, see http://blackboard.uoregon.edu/local/usingbb/. Also you can get help starting by going to the library Information Technology Center (ITC) and/or see http://libweb.uoregon.edu/kitc/faq/blackboard.html#help.

Students with Directory Restricted Access

This course includes group and on-line participation. If you have restricted access to your directory information and wish to have special arrangements made for this course, please notify the instructor immediately.

Students with Disabilities

If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodations in this course, please make arrangements to meet with the instructor soon. Also please request that the Counselor for Students with Disabilities send a letter verifying your disability. [Disability Services: disabsrv@darkwing.uoregon.edu, 346-1155; http://ds.uoregon.edu/ ]

A Special Note about The Nature of Discussions in this Class

In this class we will be discussing issues which may have, at times, an intense personal significance for some members of the class. There are no taboos for discussion topics in this course. We will exercise and respect freedom of speech. At the same time, we must take responsibility to ensure that we are respectful of everyone's opinion and that we stay on topic. We will be focusing especially on critical thinking and the use of empirical data to evaluate theories about gender. If you find you are troubled by material while taking this course, and need support or counseling, please be sure to pursue that external support by seeking out a supportive friend, counselor, and/or a social service. The other class members and the instructor and TAs cannot fulfill that function in a class this size.

A sample of counseling and social service resources follows. Disclaimer: We do not assume any responsibility for the quality of services offered by the following organizations.

Local Crisis Lines
University of Oregon Crisis Line	346-4488
Sexual Assault Support Services Crisis Line	343-7277
Whitebird Clinic Crisis Line	687-4000
Womenspace Crisis Line	485-6513
Local Counseling
University of Oregon Counseling Center	346-3227
Center for Community Counseling	344-0620
Options Counseling Services	687-6983
Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS)	484-9791
Center for Family Therapy	346-3296
Some Additional Campus Resources
UO Women's Center	346-4095
Office of Affirmative Action	346-3123
Student Advocacy	346-3722
Multicultural Center	346-4207
LGBT Educational and Support Services	346-1134

Course Packet Contents

Fredrickson, B. L., Roberts, T.-A., Noll, S. M., Quinn, D. M., & Twenge, J. M. (1998). That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in self-objectification, retrained eating and math performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 269-284.

Freyd, J. J. (1990, February 21). Faculty members with young children need more flexible schedules. The Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. B2.

Freyd, J .J. (1997). Violations of power, adaptive blindness, and betrayal trauma theory. Feminism and Psychology, 7 (22-32).

Johnson, A. (1997). Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us. [Chapter 4 of the book The Gender Knot by Allan Johnson, 1997, Temple University Press. Chapter 4 is pages 75-98.]

Liang, B., Tracy, A., Taylor, C. A, Williams, L.M., Jordan J.V., & Miller, J.B. (2002) The Relational health indices: A study of women's relationships. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26, 25-35.

Mayall, A., & Russell, D. E. H. (1993). Racism in pornography. Feminism and Psychology, 3(2). 275-281.

McIntosh, P. (1992). White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see correspondences through work in women's studies. In M. L. Andersen & P. H. Collins (Eds.), Race, class, and gender: An anthology (pp. 70-81). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Miller, L.C., Putcha-Bhagavatula, A. & Pedersen, W. (2002) Men's and Women's Mating Preferences: Distinct Evolutionary Mechanisms? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 88-93.

Pelka, F. (1992). Raped: A male survivor breaks his silence. On the Issues, 40, 8-11.

Shields, S. A. (1975). Functionalism, Darwinism, and the psychology of women. American Psychologist, 30, 739-754.

Steinem, G. (1978). If men could menstruate. Ms Magazine, October 1978 . p. 110

Stoler, L., Quina, K., DePrince, A.P &. Freyd, J. J. (2001). Recovered memories. In J. Worrell (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Women and Gender, Volume Two. (pp 905-917) San Diego, California and London: Academic Press.

Stoltenberg, J. (1998a). Healing from manhood: A radical meditation on the movement from gender identity to moral identity. In S. P. Schacht & D. W. Ewing (Eds.), Feminism and men: Reconstructing gender relations, (pp. 146-160). New York: New York University Press.

Stoltenberg, J. (1998b). "I am not a rapist!": Why college guys are confronting sexual violence. In S. P. Schacht & D. W. Ewing (Eds.), Feminism and men: Reconstructing gender relations, (pp. 89-98). New York: New York University Press.

Straton, J. C. (1994). The myth of the "Battered Husband Syndrome" Masculinities, 2(4): 79-82.

van Gelder, L. (1987). Gay Gothic. Ms Magazine, July/August, 146-147, 150, 152, 214.

Williams, P. J. (1996). My best white friend. The New Yorker, Feb.26/March 4 1996, p. 94.

Books on Reserve for PSY 380/401 at Knight Library

Anselmi, D. L. & Law, A. L. (1998). Questions of Gender: Perspectives & Paradoxes. McGraw Hill.

Caplan, P. & Caplan, J. (1994) Thinking Critically About Research on Sex and Gender. Harper Collins.

Freyd, J. J. (1996) Betrayal Trauma: The Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

and many others -- see reserve reading lists under BOTH Freyd's 380 and 401 courses.

Required BOOKS TO PURCHASE for PSY 380

A&L Anselmi, D. L. & Law, A. L. (1998). Questions of Gender: Perspectives & Paradoxes. McGraw Hill.

CP COURSE PACKET FOR PSY 380.

FYI: Fall 2004 Academic Deadlines set by the UO

Deadline: Last day to:
September 26: Drop this course (100% refund, no W recorded)
October 4: Drop this course (85% refund, no W recorded)
October 6: Add this course
October 10: Withdraw from this course (85% refund, W recorded)
October 17: Withdraw from this course (50% refund, W recorded)
October 24: Withdraw from this course (25% refund, W recorded)
November 14: Withdraw from this course (0% refund, W recorded)
November 14: Change grading option for this course

Weekly Schedule: Topics, Readings, Assignments, Deadlines

• Week 1 readings are to be completed before the September 30 class. Week 2-9 readings are to be completed before the Tuesday class that week.
  
• A&L is text Anselmi, D. L. & Law, A. L. (1998)
  
• CP is COURSE PACKET FOR PSY 380
• Reserve readings are available at the Knight Library reserve desk.

That's It! Have a Good Winter Break!