Hello all!  Welcome to our blog about Gender, Sexuality, and Psychology!

To start off the blog, definitions are in order.  According to the APA (American Psychological Association), psychology can be defined as the study of the mind and behavior.  This field focuses on every nook and cranny of the human experience.  The examples of a few of the vast areas that psychology covers that apa.org gives are the functions of the brain, actions of nations, child development, and care for the aged.  Those only scratch the surface of what psychologists want to uncover.  Since psychology focuses on the mind and behavior, it only takes but a few moments to realize that gender and sexuality are a big topic within psychology.  According to geneq.berkeley.edu, gender can be defined as a socially constructed system of classification that ascribes qualities of masculinity and femininity to people.  It also gives an alternate definition, saying that gender is one's sense of self as masculine or feminine regardless of external genitalia.  Seeing as the second definition is focusing on how a person feels about who they are rather than what they externally "are", it's no wonder that psychologists find gender to be a hot topic.  On the flipside of gender is sexuality, which is about who/what a person is attracted to sexually.  Apa.org defines sexuality as having three stages: desire or an interest in being sexual, excitement or the state of arousal that sexual stimulation causes, and orgasm or sexual pleasure's peaking.

The different areas of psychology that the group members of this blog will be focusing on are: 

• The DSM, more specifically on the disorders surrounding gay, lesbian, trans individuals, and women throughout history.  This group member will try to find out which disorders are more commonly diagnosed for which kind of person.
• Children.  Sub-topics of this will be gender segregation, sexual abuse, and the outcomes of it.  The group member will be taking a look to see if these things have anything to do with how a person identifies themselves through gender as well as their sexuality.
• Gender Identity Disorder (or GID) in adults, children, and looking into the Psychiatric Policy Reform.
• Whether or not there are there physiological differences between men and women, as long as people of various sexualities, and if so, what are they.  She hopes to find articles describing some studies done by experts on this topic, and really give a good understanding of the way the mind works in relation to gender and sexuality.
• The treatment of homosexuals throughout the years as well as the different types of medical treatments they underwent throughout history.

Works Cited:

geneq.berkeley.edu. Gender Equity Resource Center: A Cal Community Center

apa.org. American Psychological Association


- Emily Gutman, Amanda Ranusch, Derek Moskal, Zach Tezak, and Brittani Moorer