ABSTRACT
Since the founding of the field of psychology, there has been interest in understanding the behavior of women and men. Many popular historical and contemporary psychological theories explain patterns in the behavior of men and women. Sigmund Freud developed theories about unconscious drives that became popular in the early twentieth century. However, his theories were largely criticized for their lack of solid evidence. David Buss popularized theories of human evolution focused on mate selection that emerged in the 1990s. There have also been cross-cultural theories of gender that have been developed by psychologists to explain differences between men and women based on the characteristic of the culture. More specifically, a large body of research demonstrates that gender differences in personality traits and well-being are larger in cultures with more egalitarian gender roles, gender socialization, and sociopolitical gender equity.
