Biographical
Information:
Janet
Shibley Hyde is currently a professor that teaches about Women’s studies, in
particular, women, human sexuality, and gender development (www.womenstudies.wisc.edu). The
college she is a professor at is the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She
graduated with her bachelor’s in Mathematics at Oberlin College in 1969. She
then got her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley in
1972, and her Doctorate in Social Sciences in 1996 at Denison University (http://psych.wisc.edu). She has also performed
several job roles at both Wisconsin-Madison College and Denison University. Her
total list of experiences is also listed at http://psych.wisc.edu/Hyde/Vita_Hyde.pdf.
She has received many teaching awards for both her teaching and her works. These
rewards include the Kinsey Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, for
career contributions to sex research, in 1992, and an award for Distinguished
Service to Psychological Science by the APA in 2008 (http://psych.wisc.edu/Hyde/Vita_Hyde.pdf)
.
Major
Contributions:
Two
of her major contributions are “Understanding Human Sexuality” and “Half
the Human Experience: The Psychology of Women”. Her first major,
according to alibris.com, uses “a multidisciplinary approach,” to draw “on
biological, psychological and sociological material, as well as information
about gender and sexual health”. One of the reasons why this is a major
contribution to Psychology is because very few people talk about sex
publically. Even today, many people are avoidant about talking about it. There
are also a lot of misconceptions about male and female sexuality that are more
or less examined in this article.
The
second article, “Half the Human Experience: The Psychology of Women”, is
actually a required text in this class. It also, to no surprise, has the course
name in its title. The article restates a lot of what Freud said about women as
well as what others concluded about women based on research. The reason why
this is significant is because even today, many people still cling on to many
of Freud’s ideas, even the more skeptical and controversial ones. She also
presents other theories which include social learning theory,
cognitive-developmental theory and feminist theory. Altogether, this article
forms a picture of many of the major theories about women that have been
conjured into existence and provides their main points as well as arguments
against them. This article questions which of the many theories proposed are
true, if any of them are. This is significant because a century ago, many
people probably would have believed in Freud’s theory, but in the modern 21st
century, there are many more theories around. Many people try to consider one
or two entirely correct when each of them could have valid points to construct
a complex picture of woman’s psychology.
How
Works Fit into Class Readings:
As
I stated before, one of her readings is a reading we all had to read and
respond to in class. This article is titled “Half the Human Experience” but in
the readings section of the class folder titled “readings” it is called “Hyde:
Theoretical Perspectives”. I think largely why this article is very important
is because it opens the door to interpretation. With this segment of the
article read, one can see what people believed in the past as well as
understand many of the theories people believe today and use to draw
conclusions about both genders. In particular, feminist theory dominates a lot
of the ideas that we’ve talked about in this class, which includes the unfair
balance of expectations in motherhood as well as the cruel treatment of older
women as opposed to older men. Without understanding the main theories of women’s
psychology, one would not understand the roots of many of the readings we’ve
covered in class.
Works
Cited:
4.
Articles
from class reading
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