Abstract
Richards and Barker’s handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the psychology of sexuality and gender, with sections on sexuality, gender, relationships, psychological areas, and intersections. Within each section, authors discuss a broad spectrum of identities of individuals from sexuality and gender perspectives; they also discuss how different psychological fields have addressed these different facets of identity. The handbook concludes with a discussion of how gender and sexuality intersect with a variety of factors, including aging, class, disability, ethnicity, and religion. Each topic is addressed historically, and scholars describe current debates surrounding the topic and identify future foci. Each chapter is written by an author deemed to be expert in the particular content.
The handbook appears to be written for students, academics, and applied psychologists, with implications for each audience in every chapter. Each section includes thought-provoking discussions of ideas, directions for research, summaries of current research, and suggestions for how to move the field in directions that will advance knowledge; authors identify how to best work with individuals who have likely already experienced marginalization.
The handbook is easy to read and moves quickly; each chapter is succinct and to the point. The quality of material provided is high and gives the reader a clear view about how perception of the topics has changed over time, often moving from pathologizing to normalizing, as society and cultural foci have changed. While these directions are noted, there is further discussion of the continued necessity for change, ensuring that focus on differences is not construed as problematic, or used to further marginalize individuals or groups.
At times, it seems the content is brief and limited in coverage, due to the number of topics that are addressed, but an example from the text highlights why this approach is important. Several chapters focus on the importance of considering individuals who identify as LGBT and belong to different groups, not just one megagroup. In the chapter on the psychology of lesbians, Ellis points out, “while organizing collectively in this way has significantly advanced gay issues/perspectives within psychology, it has been at the expense of a contemporary understanding of lesbianism” (p. 120). This could be stated for each section in the book, but it is just, that in each content area lesbian issues have been included for further exploration.
While there are many positives to the book, there are several structural concerns as well. The first is that while many chapters are formatted in the same way, some do not contain the same content sections, or they utilize different headings for content areas included in each chapter. This is simply a distraction when moving from chapter to chapter. The second is that several chapters give examples to highlight their points but do not define what the examples are, leaving readers to search out this information on their own. For example, in the chapter on understanding genders, different cultures are cited as having different gender identities, but these identities are not discussed. Finally, several chapters contain duplicate material. While the material is always of value to the current chapter, with such a brief focus on each content area, it would be more beneficial to make a point once and utilize the extra space for additional content in another chapter.
The Palgrave Handbook of the Psychology of Sexuality and Gender provides a breadth of information about topics in sexuality and gender that are often overlooked or infrequently mentioned. This breadth provides a good overview for students, academics, and clinicians alike, but the book is limited in how comprehensively each topic is presented, due to the inclusion of so many topics. However, the wide number of topics included is justifiable, and each chapter provides extensive resources for further reading, so that readers can seek out additional information on topics of interest. It would be a useful textbook for an advanced undergraduate course in sex and gender that instructors could augment with supplements to add additional information on particular topics of interest.