ABSTRACT
The major issues raised by the study of women and gender (and social psychology) have been expounded independently but have much in common. The lack of cross-citation among these literatures is not surprising, given the narrow scope of most of our reading as well as the nature of the scientific enterprise with respect to citation (cf. Kuhn, 1970; Merton, 1968; Over, 1981). Thus, a number of discussions of problems in social psychology (e.g., Baumgardner, 1976; Buss, 1975; Sampson, 1977; Weissberg, 1976) stress the importance of the social context and its influence on the research process with no recognition of the parallel feminist critiques (e.g., Parlee, 1975; Sherif, 1979; Shields, 1975; Vaughter, 1976; Weisstein, 1970; Wittig, 1982). Engendering cross-fertilization for the benefit of methodology in social psychology and in the psychology of women is one of our goals in this chapter. However, we begin with a consideration of how the study of women and gender has contributed to the debate.
