MODULE SPECIFICATION

Code: USPJMD-20-3 Title:  Genders, Sexualities and Society     Version: 1 

Level: 3    UWE credit rating: 20    ECTS credit rating: 10

Module type:  Standard

Owning Faculty: Health and Life Sciences   Field: Psychology 

Faculty Committee approval: Q&S Committee (School of Life Sciences) Date: March 2010

Approved for Delivery by: N/A

Valid from: September 2010   Discontinued from:

Pre-requisites: None

Co-requisites: None

Entry Requirements: N/A

Excluded Combinations: None

Learning Outcomes:

The student will be able to:

• demonstrate a critical understanding of a range of different theoretical and methodological traditions in studying genders and sexualities;

• demonstrate a critical understanding of the ways in which these approaches have been applied in relation to various aspects of genders and sexualities;

• critically discuss the politics of knowledges of genders and sexualities;

• demonstrate a critical understanding of how conceptualisations of genders and sexualities have changed historically and across different social and cultural contexts;

• evaluate the significance of contemporary understandings of sexual and gender practices and identities as multiple, diverse, context-specific and flexible;

• recognise and discuss key themes and debates in contemporary social science research and theory on genders and sexualities.

Syllabus Outline:

The module will start with an overview of theory and research on genders and sexualities within (and beyond) psychology. Subsequent teaching sessions will focus on a range of topics and issues pertaining to gender and sexuality. These will typically include examining the history of research on sexualities and genders within psychology; nature/nurture debates; the politics of knowledges of genders and sexualities; different approaches (e.g. studying gender differences vs gendered experience) to gender and sexualities research; sexualities, genders and popular culture; the body (e.g., gendered and sexual embodiment, transgendered bodies, intersex bodies, anorexic bodies, pregnant bodies, homosexual bodies, feminine bodies, masculine bodies), genders/sexualities as performance; post-feminism; and the intersections of genders and sexualities with other categories of identity (e.g. ethnicity, class and disability).

Teaching and Learning Methods:

The module will use a combination of T&L methods incorporating lectures, workshops, small group activities, guided reading, group discussions, and screenings of films and television programmes.

Reading Strategy:

All students will be encouraged to make full use of the print and electronic resources available to them through membership of the University. These include a range of electronic journals and a wide variety of resources available through web sites and information gateways. The University Library’s web pages provide access to subject relevant resources and services, and to the library catalogue. Many resources can be accessed remotely. Students will be presented with opportunities within the curriculum to develop their information retrieval and evaluation skills in order to identify such resources effectively.

Any essential reading will be indicated clearly, along with the method for accessing it, e.g. students may be expected to purchase a set text, be given or sold a print study pack or be referred to texts that are available electronically, etc. This guidance will be available either in the module handbook, via the module information on Blackboard or through any other vehicle deemed appropriate by the module/programme leaders.

If further reading is expected, this will be indicated clearly. If specific texts are listed, a clear indication will be given regarding how to access them and, if appropriate, students will be given guidance on how to identify relevant sources for themselves, e.g. through use of bibliographical databases.

Indicative Reading List:

Students will be expected to read journal articles and key texts to support their learning on this module and will be directed to relevant reading for each teaching session as well as to relevant online resources.

Books, book chapters and journal articles

Genders

Bhavnani K-K and Phoenix, A. (eds) 1994) Shifting identities shifting racisms: A feminism and psychology reader, London, Sage.

Bornstein, K. (1998) My gender workbook: How to become a real man, a real woman, the real you, or something else entirely. New York: Routledge.

Butler, J. (1990) Gender trouble: Feminism and the subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.

Butler, J. (1993) Bodies that matter: On the discursive limits of ‘sex’. New York: Routledge.

Crawford, M. (1995) Talking difference: On gender and language. London: Sage.

Edley, N. and Wetherell, M. (1995) Men in perspective: Practice power and identity. London, Prentice Hall.

Henwood, K., Griffin, C., and Phoenix, A. (eds) Standpoints and differences: essays in the practice of feminist psychology, London, Sage.

Hollway W. (1989) Subjectivity and method in psychology: Gender, meaning and science. London: Sage Publications.

Lacquer, T. (1990) Making sex: Body and gender from the Greeks to Freud. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Malson, H. (1998) The thin woman: Feminism, post-structuralism and the social psychology of anorexia. London: Routledge.

Malson, H. and Burns, M. (eds) (2009) Critical feminist approaches to eating dis/orders, London, Routledge.

Potts, A. (2002) The science/fiction of sex. London, Routledge.

Phoenix, A., Woollett, A. and Lloyd, E. (1991) Motherhood: Meanings, practices and ideaologies, London, Sage,

Unger, R. and Crawford, M. (2003) Women and gender: A feminist psychology, 4th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Ussher, J. (ed) (2000) Women’s health: Contemporary international perspectives, London, BPS.

Welton, D. (ed) (1998) Body and flesh: A philosophical reader, Oxford, Blackwell.

Wilkinson, S. (1997) Feminist psychology. In D. Fox and I. Prilleltensky (Eds) Critical psychology: An introduction (pp. 247-264). London: Sage.

Wilkinson, S. (1997) Prioritizing the political: Feminist Psychology. In T. Ibáñez and L. Íñiguez (Eds) Critical social psychology (pp. 178-194). London: Sage.

Wilkinson, S. and Kitzinger, C. (eds) (1996) Representing the other: A feminism and psychology reader, London, Sage.

Sexualities

Clarke, V. and Peel, E. (2007) Out in psychology: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer perspectives. Chichester: Wiley.

Clarke, V. Ellis, S., Peel, E. and Riggs, D. (2010) Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer psychology: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Foucault, M. (1978) The history of sexuality, Vol. I. Translated by R. Hurley. New York: Vintage Books.

Hegarty, P. (1997) Materializing the hypothalamus: A performative account of the ‘gay brain’. Feminism & Psychology, 7(3), 355-372.

Kessler, S. J. (1998) Lessons from the intersexed. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B. and Martin, C. E. (1948) Sexual behavior in the human male. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.

Kinsey, A. C., Pomeroy, W. B., Martin, C. E. and Gebhard, P. H. (1953) Sexual behavior in the human female. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.

Kitzinger, C. (1995) Social constructionism: Implications for lesbian and gay psychology. In A. R. D’Augelli and C. J. Patterson (Eds) Lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities over the lifespan: Psychological perspectives (pp. 136-161). New York: Oxford University Press.

Kitzinger, C. (1987) The social construction of lesbianism. London: Sage.

Kitzinger, C. and Coyle, A. (1995) Lesbian and gay couples: Speaking of difference. The Psychologist, 8, 64-69.

Krafft-Ebing, R. V. (1997) Psychopathia Sexualis: The case histories. London: Creation Books.

Myerson, M., Crawley, S. L., Anstey, E. H., Kessler, J. and Okopny, C. (2007) Who’s zoomin’ who? A feminist, queer content analysis of ‘interdisciplinary’ human sexuality textbooks. Hypatia, 22(1), 92-113.

Peel, E. (2001) Mundane heterosexism: Understanding incidents of the everyday. Women’s Studies International Forum, 24(5), 541-554.

Peel, E. (2005) Effeminate ‘fudge nudgers’ and tomboyish ‘lettuce lickers’: Language and the construction of sexualities in diversity training. Psychology of Women Section Review, 7(2), 22-34.

Richardson, D. and Seidman, S. (Eds) (2002) Handbook of lesbian and gay studies. London: Sage.

Sullivan, N. (2003) A critical introduction to queer theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Terry, J. (1999) An American obsession: Science, medicine and homosexuality in modern society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Warner, D. N. (2004) Towards a queer research methodology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1, 321-337.

Wilkinson, S. and Kitzinger, C. (1993) Heterosexuality: A Feminism & Psychology reader. London: Sage.

Relevant Journals: Feminism & Psychology, Theory & Psychology, Journal of Homosexuality, Journal of Lesbian Studies, Qualitative Research in Psychology, Qualitative Inquiry, Sexualities, Psychology of Women Quarterly (PWQ), Psychology & Sexualities, Discourse & Society, Sex Roles, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Gender & Society, Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Review, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Women's Studies International Forum, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Journal of Bisexuality

Assessment:

Weighting between components A and B (standard modules only)  

A: 50% B: 50%

FIRST ATTEMPT

First Assessment Opportunity

Component A (controlled)           Element Wt (Ratio)

Description of each element (within Component)

EX2	Examination (2 hours)	1

Component B              Element Wt (Ratio)

Description of each element (within Component)

CW1	Coursework portfolio (3,000 words max)	1

Second Assessment Opportunity (further attendance at taught classes is NOT required)

Component A (controlled)            Element Wt (Ratio)

Description of each element (within Component)

EX2	Examination (2 hours)	1

Component B              Element Wt (Ratio)

Description of each element (within Component)

CW1	Coursework portfolio (3,000 words max)	1

SECOND (OR SUBSEQUENT) ATTEMPT Attendance at taught classes is NOT required.

Specification confirmed by  …………………………………………………Date ……………………………

(Associate Dean/Programme Director)