Psychological Essentialism as Relevant Concept within Gender Studies

Abstract

Psychological essentialism is the concept, that an individual holds a specific assumption about the character of social categories, i.e. to possess category defining essence. The possible consistence of the essence, the measurement of the ascription, and some combinations of essentializers and essentialized people are described. After summarizing the so far studied antecedences and consequences, some possible entanglements with gender studies are listed. It seems relevant that essentializing affects the attribution of responsibility for disadvantages and that it elicits a fixing of characteristics. There are also new research questions, like how do cultural norms influence the separate dimensions of psychological essentialism. And how does the essentializing cement cultural concepts, like the construct of gender binary. Concluding, it is mentioned that also researchers run the risk of essentializing and that the author is advocating a context dependent and variable concept of essentializing.