Megan Regalado currently works in a residential program
as an Eating Disorder Counselor in Southern California. She graduated from
Trinity Christian College in December ’12 with a Bachelor of Arts, in Psychology and a minor in
Sociology. She hopes to attend graduate school in the Fall in order to obtain
her Masters of Science in Counseling, and become a Marriage and Family
Therapist. She plans on spending her career focusing on working with teens
struggling with addictions.
Psychology, Christianity, and Gender
Differences
in gender can be seen through social dominance, aggression, and sexuality, but
as Christians we should understand the topic of gender differences as
differences that are created in order to demonstrate the need for one another
in a fallen world.
Social
dominance can affect an individual’s
view of a person’s social rank, and can overall affect the hierarchy pattern in
which males are most often viewed as possessing more social dominance.
Psychology examines reasons that the need for dominance is apparent in society.
Ainsworth and Maner (2012) suggest
that males have an underlying need for dominance among one another as well as
among females. Some psychologists suggest the role of men has been to be more socially
dominant than women and to express this dominance through positions of
authority.
Men
and women differ in their styles of aggression, where men are viewed by
psychologists as being more aggressive. Aggression then spills over into
relationships among men and women. Ross’s (2012) findings suggested that
physical, sexual, and psychological abuse tended to co-occur in the
relationships of women with highly violent or controlling partners. Aggression and social dominance are often
spoken of in the same breath when psychologists discuss the need for a male to
obtain a mate for reproduction. This negative view of the aggression of
men is discussed in terms of a man’s sexuality.
Sexuality
is another area where men and women differ in terms of emotional involvement
and arousal. “Men’s sexuality revolves around physical factors, in which nature
is predominant and the social and cultural dimension is secondary. For women,
social and cultural factors play a much greater role, and the role of physical
processes and biological nature is relatively smaller” (Baumeister, 2000, p.
368). Baumeister (2000) also suggests that women are more creatures of meaning
while men are relatively creatures of nature. The evolutionary psychology view
about the sexuality of men describes their motivation for sex as being driven
by their need to pass on their genes.
From
a Christian standpoint, God is the creator of man and woman. Differences in
social dominance and sexuality can be seen through the initial creation of man
and woman, but is affected by the sin that they fell into while in the garden.
“Eve was in no way inferior to her husband, but she was nonetheless given a
role that was subordinate to his leadership…The relationships within the
Trinity illustrate perfectly how headship and submission can function within a
relationship of absolute equals” (Macarthur, 2005, p. 7). Adam and Eve were
created to produce offspring and those offspring were to fill the earth. They
were naked in the garden together as man and wife, and were not ashamed. Upon
sin entering creation through Adam and Eve, they saw themselves merely as
individuals who were naked and ashamed, emphasizing their own knowledge of
their bodies and how different they were from one another by attempting to
cover themselves. The relationship between man and woman is affected by sin,
but that also allows us to see how man and woman complement each other with
their different qualities. Man and woman are created in order to demonstrate
the need for one another in a fallen world and to glorify God through their
interactions and relations with one another.
References
Ainsworth, S.E., & Maner, J.K. (2012). Sex begets
violence: Mating motives, social dominance, and physical aggression in men. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 103, 819-829.
Baumeister, R. F. (2000). Gender differences in
erotic plasticity: The female sex drive as socially flexible and responsive. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 347-374.
Macaruther, J. (2005). Twelve Extraordinary Women:
How God Shaped Women of the Bible and What he Wants to do With You. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
Ross, J. M. (2012). Self-reported fear in partner violent relationships:
Findings on gender differences from two samples. Psychology of Violence, 2, 58-74.
