Gender, Emotion, and the Family focuses on gender
differences in the experience and expression of emotion...[Brody] has gathered an
amazing amount of data from innumerable studies...[and gives] a balanced account of
the effect of environmental variables on the development of emotion.
--
Lucy Horwitz Boston Book Review
Finally, an accurate
and well-balanced discussion of topics that are on everybody's mind. Brody
integrates research on the socialization of violence in boys and of the caretaking
role for girls. Both this book and actual scientific research
strongly support the role of nurture rather than nature in gender
socialization...[A] highly recommended book.
-- F. Smolucha
Choice
Drawing on a wealth of information, [Leslie
Brody] illuminates the ways in which men and women, boys and girls, develop and
express emotions in the context of the family...This in-depth research addresses
many issues, from power in relationships to the physiological expression of emotion;
evidence of contradictory findings is detailed. This is a valuable addition to the
ever-changing frontiers of behavior research.
-- Margaret Cardwell Library
Journal
Brody has formidable mastery of this
burgeoning field. Gender, Emotion, and the Family offers new
theoretical insights for lay readers and fellow scholars alike. Highly readable,
responsible, and original, this will be the major work on the socialization of
emotion for a long time to come.
-- Judith A. Hall, Northeastern
University
A beautifully written text that
integrates theory and research in a sophisticated yet highly readable way. Brody
examines the development of emotional experience and expression in the family and
the intimate connections between emotion, familial relationships, and gender.
Brody's tremendous breadth of scholarship shows in every chapter, and her
thoughtful, comprehensive, and insightful responses to the complex questions in the
field are a must read for students and scholars alike.
-- Amy G.
Halberstadt, North Carolina State University
Leslie
Brody provides a careful evaluation of the research data on precisely what the
gender differences are--and are not--in emotional experience and expression, but
that is only the first strength of her book. With an original and complex
transactional theory, she shows how physiological, relational and cultural factors
interact in creating gender differences in emotion, and reminds us how peculiar it
is to try--as psychologists have!-- to make much of any single factor.
Gender, Emotion, and the Family outlines a compelling research
agenda that will move the next generation of empirical studies to a new and much
more exciting level.
-- Abigail Stewart, Professor of Psychology and
Women's Studies, University of Michigan
An
invaluable resource for researchers on all aspects of the psychology and sociology
of gender, Gender, Emotion, and the Family comprehensively
synthesizes and re-analyzes the enormous research literature on supposed gender
differences in emotional expression. Leslie Brody offers a clear and compelling
critique of the widespread belief that males and females have essentially different
emotional styles. Arguing that apparent gender differences in emotion are closely
related to gender differences in dominance and power, Brody illuminates the great
diversity of experience and behavior found among members of the same sex, and
reminds us of the powerful role played by stereotypes in dictating emotions that men
and women should display, and the pressures they feel to conform to those
stereotypes.
-- Elizabeth Aries, Amherst
College
Beyond the main points about the
complexities and contingencies of gender differences and their development, the book
contains accounts of many, many fascinating studies and intriguing points of
view...Brody ultimately succeeds in articulating a comprehensive, thoughtful, and
intellectually rigorous review of the research literature on gender differences in
emotional expression, from a feminist empiricist perspective. This is an important
book to own...a valuable reference for researchers and professionals.
--
Contemporary Psychology
