lamaze method

(learn techniques of relaxation and controlled breathing)

- relaxation helps to reduce tension, pain, and controlled breathing.

tendency for women to be clustered at the bottom of the heirarchy within occupations.

- glass ceiling: phenomonon of women being blocked by advancement in specific jobs 

obscene remarks, demeaning jokes about women or suggestive comments about the worker's sexuality or personal life, as well as threatening or aggressive sexually toned materials in the workplace

- 35-50% of women have experienced it at some point in their lives 

the difficulty of meeting incompatible expectations.

- women are more likely to adjust ones job life for family responsibility

- several studies show that involvement as a spouse, parent, and worker is beneficial for both men and women- it promotes better mental health, physical health, and relationship quality (because if they are not succeeding in one role, they most likely are in one of the others) 

brief episodes of suddenly increasing heart rate, warmpth, and sweating.

- don't occur in all cultures (has to do with diet)

-  no evidence that the onset of menopause causes depression or that depression happens after

grandmas.

Due to divorce, HIV/AIDS and drug epidemic, increasing number of grandmothers have assumed the role of primary caregiver (accounts for increased poverty in the elderly) 

women are more often than men to make the decision to retire because of events unrelated to work.

Low-income women must keep working as long as possible to make ends meet.

Even when women retire, their total workload may not change.

Divorved, or never married women work longer than men

In the US 8.5 million widowed women over age of 65 and about 2 million widowed men.

Women that are widowed are much less likely to remarry  than men in their age group.

About 2/3 of all poor older adults in the US are women, the majority are ethnic minorities.

The "norm" (what's normal as defined by the culture).

- In patriarchal societies, there is a tendency to consider males the norm, and females as a special category.

- In general, women have been labeled unreasonable and crazy in androcentric cultures.

- strong connection between gender stereotypes and diagnostic lables

- individual, social, and cultural factors

- Social constructionist view (what is the norm and what isn't)

- sampling bias

- gender bias

- more help recommended for women than men, even though symptoms are the same

- is defined in terms of their difference from the male norm.

- referred to women as the "dark continent"- mysterious and unknowable.

- our "penis envy" could never be resolved

- women are onerrepresented relative to men in eating disorders, mood and anxiety disorders,and some personality disorders.

- Women are underrepresented relative to men in diagnostic frequency for substance abuse disorders, some antisocial conduct disorders, and all of the sexual paraphilias

- negative affect turned inward

- ex. depression and anxiety

- More common in women, perhaps due to gender socialization

- negative affect expressed outwardly

- more common in men

Major Depressive disorder and Dysthymic Disorder.

- 2-3 times more diagnosed in women than men

- Both are characterized by chronically low mood, marked loss of interest in activities, appetite changes, sleep disruption, fatigue, inability to concentrate, and excessive negative thinking

Rumination.

intense fear of being in a place from which it might be difficult or embarrassing to escape.

Mostly in married women.

co-occur with depression and anxiety in women along with body dissatisfaction.

are more common in industrialized societies because of beauty standards that emphasize thinness

Characterized by a pattern of instability in relationships, self-concept, and emotions accompanied by impulsivity and a severe fear of abandonment.

- people with this disorder are more likely to be violent towards self while people with antisocial personality disorder are more likely to be violent towards others

syndroms not officially recognized by the APA, but are well known in other cultures

physical problems with no apparent organic cause.

- During the victorian age, women's reproductive organs were believed to be the primary source of mental disress and physicials used woman-specific therapies (removal of ovaries, electric shock of uterus, hot water injections to vagina, and clitoral cauterization)

The historical look at psychiatric medications.

suggsts that woman have been disproportionately targeted as candidates for them, especially when they experienced distress related to their traditional feminine roles as mother and homemakers

- woman are more likely to be portrayed as consumers of them

- theoretical orientation and/or personal perspective that informs the therapists appraisal of the client's distress and guides to treatment mught be based on gender stereotypes and sexist attitudes

- traditional psychotherapeutic orientations focus on the individual as the source of psychological distress, with little or no concentration of social contextual factors that may lead to the client's problems.

- the relationship between the therapist and client is an unequal one in which the therapist is the more powerful expert and the client is in the subordinate and vulnerable position.