This article explores the ways in which women's perceptions of their own bodies affect their experiences as students in higher education. Based on online focus group interviews with 25 college women, the authors use Foucault's concept of the "Panopticon" to consider how students internalize and enforce gendered expectations related to…

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this paper explores the ways in which colleges become sites that socialise African American men as gendered beings. Twenty-four African American men enrolled in 12 colleges and universities across the 19 southern and border states of America participated in this study. The purpose is to illustrate how…

It has been argued that the predominant focus of midlife personality development is generativity; other research has found that social roles influence both its onset and its expression. In this article, we examine women's midlife personality development and its relationship to career and family commitments. Results for a sample of 90 women…

Many problematic behavioral trends and issues involving men on college campuses have been well documented in the recently published discourse on college men and masculinities. Yet, empirical explanations as to why these trends and issues persist and what college educators can do to effectively address them are largely absent from this discourse.…

The theory that emerged from this constructivist grounded theory study of 10 college men's experiences depicts their gender identity as developed through constant interaction with society's expectations of them as men. In order to try to meet these perceived expectations, participants described putting on a performance that was like wearing a mask…

Jungian gender development theory provides the means to view the individuation process and how it is influenced by gender. Explains how women must come to understand what it means to be female and to recognize masculine components of their personality, just as men must understand their development. Suggests counselors have a responsibility to…

Two models of heterosexual identity development are discussed. The models were developed for different reasons and thus represent different ways of conceptualizing heterosexual identity development. The strengths and weaknesses of each model are presented and the two models are compared and contrasted. Apart from the models themselves, these two…

Gender theories provide a critical framework for considerations of heterosexual identity. Patriarchal power rests on the social meanings given to biological sex differences and to their reproduction as societal discourses regarding what it means to be a woman or a man. This is a crucial point and one that we believe is not fully recognized in the…