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Depression vs. paranoia: Why are there sex differences in mental illness?
Author(s) -
Lewis Helen Block
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1985.tb00362.x
Subject(s) - paranoia , psychology , shame , depression (economics) , personality , id, ego and super ego , mental illness , clinical psychology , style (visual arts) , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , mental health , economics , macroeconomics , history , archaeology
Sex differences in proneness to depression and paranoia are seen as reflecting caricatures of women s and men's stereotypical role in a male‐dominated, exploitative society Following its major hypothesis that mental illness arises out of failures in the sociability that is inherent in our species, the paper discusses some of the evidence for sex differences in sociability, and some evidence from studies of sex differences in field dependence which, taken together, suggest a sex difference in proneness to shame and guilt This sex difference in ‘superego” style is a mediating factor in proneness to depression and paranoia